Moses de Coucy bkn- Jacob bkx-Ch.vyim
(hak-Kohen ben-Chananel), the most celebrated Jewish preacher of the ^liddle .Vges, was born at Coucy, not far from Soissons, cir. A.D. 1200. He severely reprobated a custom tlien prevalent of marrying strange women. He often preached on that subject, and at last had the good fortune to be heard, for many sent away the Gentile wives they had married. He travelled much in Spain and France, and taught the law, which seemed to have been neglected by a good many of his co-relig- ionists. He died in 1260. Closes is the author of a very highly esteemed work, called the Major Book of I the Commandments (b'ns rV^'Z ~ES. called s'^O, Se- 1 7nag, from its initials). This work on the command-
MOSES HA-DARSHAN
689
MOSES DE LEON
merits and prohibitions consists of sermons which he de- livered on his journeys through the south of France and Spain (12o5-r245), the design of which was to confirm his brethren in the ancient faith, since the orthodox religion of the Jews was at that time undermined by the philosophy of Maimonides. The worli which propounds the six hundred and thirteen precepts was tirst printed before 1480; then in Soncino, 1488; and in Venice, 1522, 1547, etc. An abridgment of the Major Book was made by Isaac de Corbeil, A.D. 1277, entitled "pp nidi's "d (called p'aO, Semak, from the initials of its title), the Minor Book of the Commandments, and is divided into seven parts, for the seven days of the week. It was first published at Constantinople, 1510, then at Cremona, 1556, with glosses, etc., and at Cracow, 1590, etc. See Furst, Bibl. Judaica, i, 189 sq., 180 ; De \io6si, ■ Dizionario (Germ, transl.), p. 172; Steinschnei- der, Catalogus Libr. Ilebr. in Bibl. Bodleiana, col. 1795- 1798, col. 1103 ; Lindo, Hist, of the Jeics in S'jiain, p. 80 (where the name is written "Micozzi"); Basnage, ///s?. of the Jeics (Eng. transl.), p. 659 ; Ginsburg, in Levitas, Massoreth ha-Massoi-eth, p. 249 sq., note (Lond. 1807) ; Griitz, Gesch. d. Juden, vii, 54, 02-04, 105, 119 ; Jost, Gesch. d. Juden it. s. Sekten, iii, 33 ; Carmoh', La France Israelite, p. 100 sq. ; Da Costa, Israel and the Gentiles, p. 255; 7.\mz,Zur Gesch.u.Literatur,p.8ii,V27, li3. (B.P.)
Moses ha-Darshan (i. e. the Expositor} of Nakbonne, a rabbi noted as a pulpit orator of more than usual influence and power as well as an exegete of the O.-T. Scriptures, flourished in I" ranee in the sec- ond half of the 11th century. He was the teacher of Nathan the Jew, who is noted as another great light of the Jewish pulpit, and wrote a number of valuable com- mentaries, among which a commentary on the Penta- teuch, resting largely on the Midrashic lore, is the most widely circulated and esteemed. His greatest work is a commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures, which is al- ternately quoted by the respective names of "1 ^IIJITS ■|w"nri riT'O, Expositions of R. Moses the Expositor, nzi nit^S-in, the Great Bereshith, BeresMth Rahba Major, and Bereshith Rabba R. Mose ha-Darshan, and which has not as yet come to light. Copious and nu- merous fragments of it, however, are given by Kashi in his commentaries on Gen. xxxv, 8; xlviii, 7; Numb, viii, 7 ; vii, 18-23 ; xi, 20, 21 ; xv, 14 ; xix, 22 ; xxvi, 24, 30 ; xxviii, 19 ; xxxii, 24, 42 ; xxxiii, 1 ; Deut. xxi, 14 ; xxvii, 24; Josh, v, 9; Psa. xl, 2; Ix, 4; Ixii, 12; Ixviii, 17; lxxx,6; Prov. v, 19; xxvi, 10; Job xxxvi, 1 ; by Eayraond jMartin in his Pur/io Fidei (Par. 1051, Leips. 1087), both in the original Hebrew and in a Latin trans- lation; by Porchert in his Victoria adrersus impios Hebrceos (Paris, 1520) ; by Joshua Lorki, or Hieronymus de Santa Fide, as he was called after embracing Cliris- tianity, in his Hebrceomastix (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1002) ; and by Galatin in his De A rcanis Catholicce ve- ritatis (Basle, 1550). These fragments, which are ex- ceedingly important contributions to the history of in- terpretation in the Middle Ages, show that R. Moses strove to explain the words and the context, and that he interspersed his literal expositions with ancient Ilag- (/adas, as well as with the interpretations of the sages of olden days. See Zunz, Die Gottesdienstlichen Voi-trdge dtr Juden, p. 286-293 ; Ginsburg, in Kitto, Bibl. Cyclop. s. v.; Etheridge, Inti-od. to Ilebi-ew Lit. p. 248; Jost, Gesch. d, Judenthums, ii, 388 ; Griitz, Gesch. d. Juden. vol. viiL
Moses ibn-Ezra ben -Jacob of Granada, a
Jewish writer of note, was born in Spain about 1070, and was descended from a family which once held noble rank in Jerusalem. He was equally celebrated as a learned Talmudist and a professor of Greek philosophy. Although, like his brother poets, he excelled in sacred song, he also tuned his l\-re as an inhabitant of the West, and sang at times of love, but more often in praise of the beauties of nature. He was a contemporarv of the VI.— X X
celebrated rabbi Jehudah ben-Samuel ha-Levi (q. v.), who bestowed due meed of praise upon him and some other members of his noble and learned family. As a poet, Closes ibn-Ezra won the honor of being considered one of the most finished Hebrew writers. His works are remarkable not only for the intrinsic excellence of the matter, but for the purity, sweetness, and (esthetic grace of their style. Alexander von Humboldt, in his Cos- mos, ii, 119, praises Moses ibn-Ezra's sublime descrip- tion of natural scenery. The Selichoth, or penitential hymns, are greatly esteemed by the Jews, who give to Ibn-Ezra the epithet o{ Ilassalach (nbsil), or " the Se- lichoth poet" par excellence. He died about 1139. Mo- ses ibn-Ezra wrote D'^Silitini m"i52T, Hymns for Fes- tival and other Occasions, in the Sephardim Ritual: — Dirvan R. M. ben-Ezra, a collection in 2 parts, miscel- laneous and religious: — TIJ"iUJ"iriil D, also p3j? D; this poem is called Tarshish from the number of its stanzas, 1210, expressed by the numerical value of the letters W^'IJ-in : — nirsn ran? b. The Garden of Spices, on the philosophy of religion, in 7 parts : — iinDlin, a penitential poem. He also wrote on elo- quence and poetry, with an Arabic paraphrase; also a philosophical treatise, still unprinted. l^xtensive spec- imens of his writings are given in L. Dukes's Moses ibn- Ezra (Altona, 1839). See also Sachs, Religiose Poe- sie der Juden in Spanien, p. 09-82, 310-319; Kilmpf, Nichtandalusische Poesie A ndalusischer Dichter (Prague, 1858), p. 213-240; Zunz, Synagogal Poesie, p. 21, 133, 228-230. See also Furst, Biblioth. Judaica, i, 257 sq. ; . Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, vi, 123-127 ; Braunschweiger, Die Juden in den roman. Staaten, p. 02-04; Finn, .S'e- phardim, p. 174; Lindo, Jews in Spain, p. 55 ; Da Costa, Israel and the Gentiles, p. 291 ; Margoliouth, Modern Ju- daism Investigated, p. 243 ; Etheridge, Introd. to Hebrem. Literature, p. 381 sq. ; Zunz, Literaturgesch. z. Synago- galen Poesie, p. 210, 412, 585, 614; Nachtrag dazu, p. 8, 33 ; Jost, Geschichte d. Judenthums ii. s. Sekten, ii, 414 sq.; Dukes. RahbinischeBlumenlese,\i.b8; Delitzsch, Zj/r Gesch. d. Jild. Poesie, 45, 168; Griitz, Leket Schoschanim Blumenlese neuhebr. Dichtungen (Breslau, 1802), p. 56 sq. ; De Rossi, Dizionario (Germ, transl.), p. 11 ; Kimchi, Li- ber Radicum (ed. Biesentlial et Lebrecht, Berlin, 1847), p. 36. (B. I'.)