Sefer HaChinukhספר החינוך
Barcelona · 1300
רה
Ra'ah
Ra'ah
1235 CE–1290 CE · Rishonim · Girona
Rabbi Aharon HaLevi, known as the Ra'ah (an acronym for Rav Aharon HaLevi), was the great Talmud scholar of Barcelona in the 13th century, famous above all as a leading rival of his contemporary the Rashba — the two debated each other's rulings so often that later students learned the law by watching them disagree. Active in medieval Spain during a vibrant period of Iberian Jewish learning, he drew on both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions of Jewish law, and his works influenced later Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities. Few details survive about his specific teachers and students.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the orchard map →
✦
Stop 1 of 31235Born
GironaCatalonia — Geronese Kabbalah
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
About Girona
Girona (Gerona), a city in Catalonia, Spain, was the seat of one of the earliest schools of Kabbalah in the thirteenth century. The Geronese circle, including Rabbi Ezra ben Solomon, Rabbi Azriel of Gerona, and Rabbi Jacob ben Sheshet, developed speculative Kabbalah from the teachings of Isaac the Blind, and the city was the birthplace of Nachmanides (Ramban), who absorbed and transmitted this mystical tradition. Much of the terminology of later Kabbalah was first formulated here.
In Girona at the same time
In the same place & time
✦
Sages whose lives overlapped with Ra'ah’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Azriel of Gerona, Ramban, Rabbeinu Yonah, Rashba, Bachya ben Asher, Ritva
The world in their lifetime
✦
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Ra'ah’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Christian world
Works(3)
Bedek HaBayit on Torat HaBayit HaArokhבדק הבית על תורת הבית הארוך
Barcelona · 1290
Chiddushei HaRa'ah on Berakhotרא״ה על ברכות
Barcelona · 1290
Related figuresראRashbaריRabbeinu YonahרטRitvaראRoshSuggested by shared subject matter, not a documented teaching relationship.