ראב"ד

Rav Avraham ben David of Posquières (c. 4885/1125–26 Kislev 4959/1198), the Raavad — the third bearer of that name — is known above all as the Baal HaHasagot, the master whose critical glosses stand on the page of the Rambam‘s Mishneh Torah. A chacham of Provence and a commentator on the Talmud, he was the son-in-law of Rav Avraham ben Yitzchak of Narbonne, the Av Beit Din, and the father of the mekubal Rav Yitzchak Sagi Nahor. He learned under Rav Meshullam ben Yaakov of Lunel and others, and after living in Lunel, Montpellier, and Nîmes he settled in Posquières — called Kiryat Yearim by the Jews, and often used as his name — where he headed a yeshiva.

He was a man of wealth who built and maintained a large beit medrash and provided for his poorer talmidim; Binyamin of Tudela, passing through around 4925/1165, told of his generosity. When the seigneur of Posquières imprisoned him, Count Roger of Carcassonne intervened and secured his release. Among his talmidim were Rav Yitzchak HaKohen of Narbonne, the first to write a commentary on the Talmud Yerushalmi, and Rav Avraham ben Nathan of Lunel, author of HaManhig.

His hasagot on the Mishneh Torah, each opening “Amar Avraham,” press the Rambam hard — not from ill-will, but out of a conviction that a code stating no sources could not be relied upon for practical ruling, and that the study of the Talmud must not be set aside for a code alone. Toward the Rif he wrote with deep respect. Of his own many works most are lost; there survive his Sefer Baalei HaNefesh on the laws of family purity and his commentary on Torat Kohanim. The mekubalim count him among the bearers of the hidden Torah, and he himself wrote that the holy spirit had appeared in his beit medrash. He was niftar on 26 Kislev 4959 and buried in Posquières (Vauvert, France).