KIMHI. ReDaK, i.e., Rabbi David Kimhi or Kimchi, was born at Narbonne after 1155, and died probably in the same city about 1235. His father Rabbi Yoseph, or his grandfather Rabbi Isaac (Yishak) Ibn Kimhi, had immigrated into Provence from Spain, where Arab fanaticism had compelled the Jews to flee from the sword of tyranny. In Provence the family took the Gentile surname of Petit e Rabbi David lost his father (who was himself a grammarian, Bible commentator, and poet of no mean order) very early; but his elder and only brother, Rabbi Mosheh (a fair scholar, but famous chiefly through his younger brother), was his principal oral teacher. The valuable literary treasures of his father, however, falling into his hands, Redak grew strong by studying them, and, as we know, eclipsed them completely, although he lacked his father’s originality. But, if Rabbi David lacked originality, he had abundance of instinct for finding out the best in the works of his predecessors, and abundance of genius for digesting and assimilating it till it became his own in a peculiar way. Although preceded by Hayyùj, Ibn Janâh, and others, and succeeded by Abraham de Balmes, Elias Levita, and others, Kimhi has maintained the position of the greatest Jewish grammarian and lexicographer for six hundred and fifty years. And, although much inferior as a Biblical scholar and talmudist to Rashi, and as a critic and philosopher to Abraham Ibn Ezra, he has outstripped both in the eyes, not only of the Christians, but to some extent even of the Jews, and thus reigned supreme for more than half a millennium, as a commentator on the Bible. The fact is, he united in his own person the childlike simplicity of Rashi and the incisive criticism of Ibn Ezra. Add to this that he was master of the Targums and ...Aggadoth as few before or after him, that he had Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek philosophy at his fingers’ ends, and that he was endowed with a truly poetical soul, and the mystery is explained how the merely reproductive scholar could cause original scholars of the highest eminence, but who were one-sided, to be all but forgotten. Not only have his works, in whatever field they are to be found, been printed and reprinted, but the most important of them are translated into Latin, 1 into Judaeo-German, 2 and even into English. 3 The following is a list of Kimhi’s works, which, however, lays no claim to perfection :—
Grammar. —S020> P art 1 ∙'∙—(D Constantinople, 1532-34, folio; (2) Constantinople, 1532-34, 8vo; (3) with Latin translation by Agathius Guidacerius, Paris, 1540, 8vo; (4) with additamenta by Elias Levita, Venice, 1544, 8vo, 4 and again (5) 1545, folio; (6) with the same additions, Venice, 1545, 8vo; (7) with the same additions and commentary by Mosheh DOJbΙ (Hechingen?), Fiirth, 1793, 8vo; (8) with additions from MSS. by Rittenberg, Lyck, 1862, 8vo. In addition to these have appeared Compendia from this grammar by Pagninus, Paris, 1549, 4to; and by Baynus, Paris, 1554, 4to.
Lexicon·. —51SpO> P art h∙ : —(1 ) withoutplace and date, but before 1480, folio; (2) with a Biblical index on the margin, Naples, 1490, folio; (3) with a Biblical index inserted, Naples, 1491, folio; (4) without pagination, Constantinople, 1513, folio; (5) Venice, 1529, folio; (6) with corrections from MSS., Salonika, 1532-33, folio; (7) Venice, 1546, folio; (8) with notes by Elias Levita, Venice, 1546-48, folio; (9) with Latin translation of the roots, Venice, 1546-48, folio; (10) the text revised from three MSS., Berlin, 1847, 4to.
Commentaries. —(1) On the Greater Part of Genesis , s Pressburg, 1842, 8vo. (2) On the Prophets and the Psalms, in the first Rabbinic Bible, Venice, 1517, folio. (3) On the Prophets and the Chronicles, in the third and all subsequent Rabbinic Bibles, Venice, 1548, 1568, 1617-19; Basel, 1618-19; Amsterdam, 1724; Warsaw, 1860-68; 1866-76. (4) On the Former Prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, in the second Rabbinic Bible, Venice, 1524-25, folio. (5) On the Former Prophets, Soncino, 1485; Leiria, 1494; Pesaro, 1511; Salonika, 1535, all in folio. (6) On the Latter Prophets, Guada-laxara, 1482; Soncino, 1485-86; Pesaro, 1515, all in folio. (7) On Isaiah and Jeremiah, Lisbon, 1492, folio. (8) On the Minor Prophets, Paris, 1539-40, 4to. (9) On Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah, Paris, 1556, 4to. (10) On Hosea, with the Latin translation of Mercier abridged by Coddaeus, Leyden, 1621, 4to; with the sacred text, Helmstadt, 1702-3, 4to; by Hermann von der Hardt, Gottingen, 1775, 4to. (11) On Joel and Malachi, by Münster, Basel, 1570, 12mo. (12) On Joel and Obadiah, Utrecht, 1657, 8vo.
(13) On Amos, with a letter by Elias Levita, Basel, 1531, 8vo.
(14) On Obadiah, Bremen, 1673, 4to; Jena, 1678, 8vo. (15) On Jonah, Utrecht, 1656, 8vo; Leipsic, 1683, 8vo; Utrecht, 1692, 8vo; Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1697, 4to. (16) OnHaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, by Thomas Neale, Paris, 1557, 4to. (17) On Malachi, Basel, 1530, 8vo; Rostock, 1637, 4to; Leipsic, 1679, 8vo. Besides these editions it ought to be mentioned that the Haρhtaroth, or “Prophetic Portions,” read on sabbaths, festivals, &c., are to be found attached to the Pentateuch, Constance, 1505, folio; Venice, 1516, folio; Constance, 1522, folio; Cremona, 1566, folio; Venice, 1568, folio; Cracow, 1588, folio; Basel, 1618, folio; Berlin, 1705, folio; Wilmersdorf, 1713, folio; Amsterdam, 1726, folio; Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1730, folio; Metz, 1766, 4to. (18) On the Psalms without place (but, no doubt, Bologna), 1477, folio; in the Hagiographa, Naples, 1486-87, folio; in the first Rabbinic Bible, as above; Salonika, 1522, folio; Isny, 1541, folio; Cremona, 1561, 8vo; Venice, 1566, 8vo; Venice, 1596; Amsterdam, 1681, 4to; Zolkiew, 1696, 4to; Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1712, 8vo; Dyhernfurt, 1714, 4to; Amsterdam, 1765, 4to; Berlin, 1767, 4to; Amsterdam, 1777, 16mo; as part of prayer-book, Amsterdam, 1796, 18mo; Amsterdam, 1816, 8vo; a part of a Bible, Fürth, 1842-47, 8vo; Zitomir, 1867, 16mo. In addition to these there ought to be mentioned The First Ten Psalms, &c., Constance, 1544, folio, and An Extract from Kimchi on the Psalms, &c., Wilmersdorf, 1725, 4to.
Miscellaneous Works. —(1) El Sophcr on the Massoreth and the Accents, Lyck, 1864, 8vo. (2) Antichristiana :—(a) in the Milchemeth Chobah, Constantinople, 1710, 8vo; and (5) in the Nitzzachon, Nuremberg, 1644, 4to; Amsterdam, 1709, 16mo; Amsterdam, 1711, 16mo; Amsterdam, 1827, 16mo; Königsberg, 1848-
50, 24mo. The “Antichristiana” contained in the Nitzzachon are the “Answers to the Christians,” from the author’s commentary on the Psalms, which are omitted in most of the editions. (3) Religious Philosophy.— The “explanation of the Merkabah (first chapter of Ezekiel) in a mystic way,” is, although attached to the author’s commentary on Ezekiel, a separate essay. In all the editions it is to be found after that commentary.
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