MENAHEM BEN SOLOMON

MENAHEM BEN SOLOMON (first half of 12^th century), author of the midrashic work Sekhel Tov. Menahem's country of origin is unknown. The foreign words in his book are Italian, but it is difficult to establish on this basis that he lived in Italy since he does not mention the Arukh of *Nathan b. Jehiel of Rome though it was written about 50 years earlier. Similarly, all that is known of Menahem is that two halakhic responsa were addressed to him apparently by Solomon b. Abraham, the nephew of Nathan of Rome (included in the Shibbolei ha-Leket, pt. 2, still in manuscript). Menahem's fame rests on his Sekhel Tov, an aggadic-halakhic midrashic anthology arranged according to the weekly scriptural readings. Only the first two parts of the book, to Genesis and Exodus, have been preserved and published by S. Buber (Sekhel Tov, 1900), who added a detailed introduction. However, many early scholars possessed complete manuscripts from which they frequently quote, particularly the author of the Asufot (in manuscript) who lived in Germany at the beginning of the 13^th century. The Sekhel Tov was written, according to its author, in 1139, with the aim of explaining the verses in accordance with the Midrashim and Hebrew philology. Apart from the talmudic and midrashic sources, the only works he quotes are the She'iltot of *Aḥa of Shabḥa, the *Halakhot Gedolot, *Hananel b. Ḥushi'el, Isaac *Alfasi, and the Midrash Lekaḥ Tov of Tobias b. Eliezer. Menahem's comprehensive knowledge of halakhah is evident from his work; in some places he actually assembles collections of halakhot on specific subjects, such as the laws of the Sabbath, *eruv, Passover (in the weekly portion Yitro), etc. Still more marked is his great interest in linguistic topics and Hebrew grammar, which in fact constitute the underlying basis of the whole work. Indeed, Menahem devoted another work to this subject, Even Boḥan; only a minor part, of which fragments alone have been published, is extant in manuscript. This work was completed in 1143. It was divided into 50 she'arim ("gates"), constructed on a most complicated system. Only five of these "gates" remain, all of which deal with the study of the roots of Hebrew verbs, and they are of considerable importance for scriptural exegesis. The work mentions by name only the Targums of Onkelos and of Jonathan b. Uzziel, and also Eliezer *ha-Kallir, but it is based on the works of *Menahem ibn Saruq and *Dunash b. Labrat, although they are not mentioned by name. Menahem's knowledge of grammar did not exceed theirs; like them he too assumed the existence of verbal roots of two and even of one letter, and his table of the conjugations is far from perfect. Besides these authors, he also used Saadiah Gaon's translation of the Scriptures. Some regard the book as the first attempt at a treatise on the Hebrew language.

bibliography:

Bacher, in: Jubelschrift … H. Graetz (1887), 94–115; idem, in: Oẓar ha-Sifrut, 5 (1895), 257–63.

[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]