RAMBAN. R. Mosheh Ben Nahman, or Nachman-ides, was born before 1200 at Gerona, where he was rabbi and physician, and died between 1268 and 1270 in Pales-tine, probably at Acre. Although a Sepharadi in the later and larger sense of the word, he was the disciple of the greatest Provençal rabbis, and became the most celebrated Talmudist and cabbalist of his age in his own country.
1. Of his extant commentaries on the Bible that on the Penta-
teuch is the most valuable. Three editions may be named. (1) Ed. prin., s. 1. et a., but certainly before 1480. According to oral tradition the compositors set the type in a waggon whilst travel-ling in Italy from place to place for the purpose of selling printed books. (2) Lisbon, 1489. (3) Naples, 1490. This book has been translated at least twice into Latin (Schiller-Szinessy, Catal., i. pp. 174-177). The authorship of the commentary on Job, ascribed to Nachmanides, has been questioned, but without good grounds {op. cit., pp. 211213־). The commentaries, however, generally ascribed to him on Canticles and Ruth are certainly not his.
2. Of his many works on Rabbinic literature we mention only: (1 השגות, Strictures on Maimonides’s {q. v. ) Sepher Hammisvoth (Constantinople, 1510, 4to; Venice, 1550, folio,—the latter in Giustiniani’s edition of Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah. A cheap edition came out at Warsaw in 1883). (2) מלחמות ה׳, Remarks against Rabbenu Zerahyah’s Moor (both printed now with the Riph ) and Hassaba (both in Tcmim Dc'im, §§ 225, 226). (3)
ספר הזכות, vindication of Al-Phasi against Rabad {q.v. —the third)...
(Vienna, 1805). (4) לקומות ,חרושים ,הלכות, Decisions, Novelise, and Collectanea ; these are spread over almost the whole Talmud. The Rcs-ponsa ascribed to him are by his disciple Rashba. (5) דרשה, a sermon on the superiority of the Mosaic Law (best edition by Jellinek, Vienna, 1872, 8vo). (6) Letters {a) on the Maimonidean controversy (cheapest edition, Vilna, 1821, 8vo); (5) to his son, on conduct (Lisbon ed. of the Pent, com.); (c) Iggereth Hakkodesh, on the ethics of matrimony (latest edition, Berlin, 1793, 8vo); MSS. lie in almost every public library in Europe, e.g., Cambridge. (7) תורת האדם, on Sickness, Death, d-c. (Constantinople, 1518, folio), —partly ascetic and contemplative, partly Rabbinic ordi-
nances; its last chapter separately under the title of שער הגמול (Naples, 1490, 4to, and reprints). (8) His anti-Christian contro-versics are chiefly contained in his וכוח, a Disputation with the convert Pablo Christian!, the teacher of Raymundus Martini, held before Jayme I., king of Aragon; it is translated into Latin, and will be found, with a mutilated and otherwise corrupt text, in Wag-enseil’s Tela ignea Satanse (Altdorf, 1681, 4to), the best and cheapest edition of the text and of the explanation of Isa. lii. 13 to liii. 12 being that of Dr Steinschneider (Berlin, 1860, 8vo). (9) Cabbal-
istic matter is contained in all Rainban’s works (notably, however, in the Pentateuch and Job); he has also a commentary on the Sepher Ycsirah (Mantua, 1562, 4to, and reprints). (10) Nachmanides was also a liturgical writer of eminence. There are extant by him a prose prayer for one going on a sea voyage ( Yephe Noph, Venice, 1575, 4to), and a piece of religious poetry {Mclo Chofnajim, Berlin, 1840, 8vo, pp. 39-41) for the Malkhiyyoth (first part of the additional service of New Year); the latter is a mostajdb and betrays a perfect master both in kabbalah and poetry. For a specimen of Aramaic poetry see his introductory poem to Milhnmoth Adonai. (S. M. S.-S. )
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