Rabbim. See Batii-kabbim.
Rabbinic Bibles, also called Mikraoth Gedoloth (mbltS PHSOpB), or Great Bibles, is the name given to the following Hebrew Bibles, which, besides the orig- inal text, also contain the commentaries of sundry Jew- ish rabbins.
i. oibpDix sis-in fj ir-sin d^rri nssist -i-p b-j ynsn si c"32id . . . I'laiiai-ns bsi nKit^iia xr-Pi:x-3 waais bsr;i, foi. This
is the first Rabbinic Bible published by Bomberg, and carried through the press by Felix Pratensis (q. v.) (Venice, 1516-17) (niO = 278). It consists of four parts, with a separate title-page to each, and with the following contents :
a. The Pentateuch, with the Chaldee paraphrase of Ou- kelos (q. v.) and the commentaries of Rashi (q. v.).
6. The Prophets, with the Chaldee of Jonathan ben- Uziel (q. v.) and the commentaries of Kinu'hi (q. v.).
c. The Hagiograplia,\\v,. the Psaluix, with the Targum of Joseph bar-Chija (q. v.) and 1). Kimchi's (q. v.) com- mentary; Proverbs, with Joseph's Targum and David Ibn- Jacbja's (q. v.) commentary; Job, with Joseph's Targum and the commentaries of Nachmanides (q. v.) and Farris-
RABBINIC BIBLES
sol (q.v.); the Five Megilloth (i. e. Canticles, Ruth, Lam- cututiunx. Eeetexiaxtes, and Kxther), with Jos-eph's Targum and Rashi's commentary; Uaitiil, with Haitian's tq. v )tuui- mentary; Ezra, NehemiaJi, and Chronicles, with Rashi'e and Simon Darshan's, or Cara's (q.v.). commentary. Ap- pended to the volume are the Targum Jerusalem on the Pentateuch, the second Targum on Esther, the variations between Beu-Asher (q. v.) and Ben-Naphtali, the differ- ences between the Eastern and Western codd., Aaron hen-Asher's (q.v.) Dissertation on the Accents, Maimon- ides's (q. v.) thirteen articles of faith, the 013 precepts (q.v.), a table of the Parashioth and Haphtaroth (q.v.), according to the Spanish and German rituals. This edition, however, did not prove acceptable to the Jews, since it did not come up to all the requirements of Masoretic rules, as can be seen from the remark Le- vita makes in his Masoreth ha-Masoreth: "Let me therefore warn and caution every one who reads the folio or quarto editions of the four-and-twenty books published here in Venice in the year 1517 to pay no at- tention to the false remarks printed in the margin, in the form of Keri and Kethib, plene and defective, Mil' I and Milra, and variations in the nun Is and accents, or to any of those tilings which ought not to have been clone, "as I have stated above. The author of them did not know how to distinguish between his right hand and his left. Not being a Jew, he knew nothing about the nature of the Masorah, and what he did put down simply arose from the fact that he sometimes found va- riations in the copies which he had before him, and, as he did not know which reading was the correct one, he put down one in the margin and another in the text. Sometimes it so happened that he put the correct read- ing into the text and the incorrect one into the margin, and sometimes the reverse is the case; thus he was groping in darkness like a blind man. Hence they are not to be heeded, for they are confusion worse confound- ed." When Levita states that the editor was no Jew, he is wrong: he was born a Jew, in 1513 embraced Christianity at Rome, and died in 1539. The defec- tiveness of this first edition induced Bomberg to under- take another edition, for which he employed as editor the celebrated Jacob ben-Chajim (q.v.), and which he published under the title
2. . . . Olpn m!"P 1S1Z5, i. e. Porta Dei Suncta (Venice, 1524-25, 4 vols. fol.). This edition is an im- provement upon the former, and its contents are as fol- lows :
a. The first volume, embracing the Pentateuch (fllir.), begins, 1, with the elaborate introduction of the editor, in which he discusses the Masorah, the Keri, and Kethib, the variations between the Talmud and the Masorah, the Tikune Sopherim (Qi"lE",D ni"ipri), and the order of the larger Masorah ; 2, an index of the sections of the whole Old Test, according to the Masorah ; and, 3, Aben-E/.ra's preface to the Pentateuch. Then follow the live books of Moses in Hebrew, with the Chaldee paraphrases of On- kelos and Jonathan ben-Uziel, and the commentaries of Rashi and Aben-Ezra, the margins being tilled up with as much of the Masorah as they would admit.
b. The second volume, comprising the earlier prophets (Q13V4JK1 D-'X'OS), i. e. Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and the Kings, has the Hebrew text, the Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan ben-Uziel. and the commentaries of Rashi, Kimchi, and Levi beu-Gershon, and the Masorah iu the margin.
c. The third volume, comprising the later prophets (d^31"inx CiOaD), i.e. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets, contains the Hebrew text, the Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan ben-Uziel, the commen- taries of Rashi, which extend over all the books in this volume, of Aben-Ezra on Isaiah and the minor prophets, and of Kimchi on Jeremiah, and the Masorah in the margin.
d. The fourth volume, comprising the Hagiographa (Q^ir"), gives the Hebrew text, the Chaldee para- phrase of Joseph the Blind, the commentaries of Rashi on the Psalms, Ezra, Nehemiah, the Five Megilloth, and Chronicles; of Aben-Ezra on the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, the Five Megilloth, Ezra, and Nehemiah ; of Levi ben-Gershon on Proverbs and Daniel; of Saadias on Daniel and the second Targum of Esther.