רבינו יונה

Rabbeinu Yonah ben Avraham of Gerona (c. 4970/1210–28 Cheshvan 5024/1263), known in English sources as Jonah Gerondi, was a rishon of Catalonia and a master of mussar, remembered above all for Shaarei Teshuvah. He came from Girona and was a cousin of the Ramban, and he learned as the foremost talmid of Rav Shlomo of Montpellier (Rav Shlomo min HaHar). In 5004/1244 he was appointed rav in Toledo, where he became one of the great Talmudic teachers of the generation; the Rashba was among his talmidim.

The defining episode of his life was his part in the great controversy over the philosophical writings of the Rambam. Together with his rebbi he had signed the ban against the Moreh Nevuchim and the Sefer HaMadda. When the dispute led on to the public burning of the Rambam’s works — and, some years later, to the burning of wagonloads of the Talmud in the same place — the rishon saw where the appeal to gentile authorities had led, and openly declared in the shul of Montpellier that he had been wrong. As part of his teshuvah he undertook to travel to Eretz Yisrael to seek the Rambam’s pardon at his kever, and in his lectures he made a point of citing the Rambam with great reverence; he was detained on the way and never completed the journey. (Traditional sources differ over the account of his repentance and his vow to reach the Rambam’s kever: some hold it authentic, while others regard it as a later tradition from the Rambam’s supporters.)

Of his Talmudic chiddushim, those on Bava Batra survive under the name Aliyot deRabbeinu Yonah, and further teachings of his are preserved in the chiddushei talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah quoted by the Rashba and the Rosh. Beside Shaarei Teshuvah he wrote Iggeret HaTeshuvah, Sefer HaYirah, and commentaries on Mishlei and on Pirkei Avot. He was niftar in Toledo.