ABOAB, ISAAC II

ABOAB, ISAAC II (1433–1493), rabbinical scholar. Known as the "last gaon of Castile," Aboab was a disciple of Isaac *Canpanton and head of the Toledo Yeshivah. Joseph *Caro refers to him as one of the greatest scholars of his time. During the final years before the expulsion from Spain he headed a yeshivah in Guadalajara, where, in 1491, Isaac *Abrabanel studied with him. When the edict of expulsion was issued against the Jews of Spain in 1492, Aboab and other prominent Jews went to Portugal to negotiate with King João ii regarding the admission of a number of Spanish exiles into his country. He and 30 other householders were authorized to settle in Oporto where he died seven months later; a eulogy was delivered by his pupil Abraham Zacuto. He had two sons: jacob, who ultimately settled in Constantinople where he published in 1538 his father's Nehar Pishon, and abraham, one of the forced converts of 1497 who retained their Jewish loyalties in secret. Abraham adopted the name Duarte Dias, and many of his descendants returned to Judaism (see *Aboab Family). Isaac Aboab's published works include the following: (1) a super-commentary on Naḥmanides' commentary on the Pentateuch (Constantinople, 1525; Venice, 1548, etc.); (2) Nehar Pishon, homilies on the Pentateuch and other biblical books, edited by his son Jacob (Constantinople, 1538); (3) talmudic excursuses (Shitot) and novellae (those to Beẓah were published in the responsa of Moses Galante (Venice, 1608) and Sefer Shitot ha-Kadmonim (1959); those to Bava Meẓia are quoted by Bezalel Ashkenazi in his Shitah Mekubbeẓet); (4) responsa, appended to Sheva Einayim (Leghorn, 1745). Oxford and Cambridge manuscripts contain some of his novellae (on Ketubbot and Kiddushin), as well as homilies. A commentary on Jacob b. Asher's Arba'ah Turim, quoted and used by Joseph Caro and later authorities, and a commentary on Rashi (on the Pentateuch), as well as many responsa, are no longer extant.

bibliography:

Graetz, Gesch, 82 (c. 1900⁴), 218, 330, 348; Weiss, Dor, 5 (1904⁴); Loewenstein, in: mgwj, 48 (1904), 663–6; Roth, in: jqr, 23 (1932/33), 121–62; A. Marx, Studies in Jewish History and Booklore (1944), 80, 85, 88–89, 431–2; idem, in: jqr, 20 (1907/08), 240–71 (add. and corr., ibid., 2 (1911), 237–8).

[Zvi Avneri]