RIMON (Granat), JOSEPH ?EVI

RIMON (Granat ), JOSEPH ?EVI (1889–1958), Hebrew poet. Born in Poland, he was educated in the yeshivot of Lida and Warsaw and came under the influence of Hillel *Zeitlin. He immigrated to Palestine in 1909, and served as secretary of Kolel Varsha ("the Warsaw community"). As a result of his association with members of the Second Aliyah, especially J.?. *Brenner and A.S. *Rabinovitz, he worked on the newspapers of the labor movement, Ha-Po'el ha-?a'ir and Ha-A?dut. He became a teacher in the religious school Ta?kemoni in Jaffa and worked as a librarian in Haifa. During World War i, he taught in Peta? Tikvah. In 1921, after being savagely mutilated by rioting Arabs, he secluded himself in the Ari Synagogue in Safed for many years, delving deeply into the study of the Kabbalah and of the Zohar. In 1939, he returned to Tel Aviv and his family. His first poem appeared in 1908 in Ha-Pera?im, the weekly of lsrael Benjamin *Levner. After his immigration to Palestine, he published his poems in most of the Palestinian newspapers. His volumes of poetry include: Leket Shirim (1910), Devir (1913), Ba-Ma?azeh (1916) and Ketarim (1944). Rimon's poetry is religious in quality and has established for itself a unique place in modern Hebrew literature. The sole ambition of the poet, apparently, was to know God by the aid of asceticism and abstinence from the world of the senses, and by immersing himself in the depths of his inner being. His book, A?ei ?ayyim, essays on outstanding Jewish leaders, appeared in two volumes in Jerusalem (1946, 1950).

bibliography:

M. Farbridge, English Literature and the Hebrew Renaissance (1953), 90; R. Wallenrod, Literature of Modern lsrael (1956), 199–201; S. Halkin, Modern Hebrew Literature (1950), 184, 190; Rabinowitz and Kariv, in: J. Rimon, Ketarim (1944), 730 (intro.); D. Sadan, Avnei Bo?an (1951), 116–29; idem, Bein Din le-?eshbon (1963), 78–85; Rabbi Binyamin, Mishpe?ot Soferim (1960), 162–8. add. bibliography: Z. Luz, "Iyyun bi-Ketarim le-Y.Z. Rimon," in: Bikkoret u-Farshanut, 2–3 (1973), 72–79; P.H. Peli, "Y.Z. Rimon, Meshorer Dati be-Doro," in: Moznayim, 36 (1973), 327–336; D. Ider, "Mita?at u-Me'ever li-Gderot: Iyyun bi-Y?iratam shel Y.Z. Rimon ve-Admiel Kosman," in: Tarbut Yehudit be-Ein ha-Se'arah (2002), 711–41; idem, "Ye?idi be-Derekh ha-Melekh shel Pardesim": Iyyun Sifruti-Kabbali ba-Po'emot 'E?ad' ve-'Ha-Levanah ha-Metah' le-Y.Z. Rimon," in: Kabbalah, 11 (2004), 301–68.

[Yonah David]