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JOSEPH KIMHI

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 800 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOSEPH KIMHI was a native of See also:southern See also:Spain, and settled in See also:Provence, where he was one of the first to set forth in the See also:Hebrew See also:language the results of Hebraic See also:philology as expounded by the See also:Spanish See also:Jews in their Arabic See also:treatises. He was acquainted moreover with Latin See also:grammar, under the See also:influence of which he resorted to the innovation of dividing the Hebrew vowels into five See also:long vowels and five See also:short, previous grammarians having simply spoken of seven vowels without distinction of quantity. His grammatical textbook, Sefer Ha-Zikkaron, "See also:Book of Remembrance " (ed. W. Bacher, See also:Berlin, 1888), was marked by methodical comprehensiveness, and introduced into the theory of the verbs a new See also:classification of the stems which has been retained by later scholars. In the far more ample Sefer Ha-Galuy, "Book of Demonstration" (ed. See also:Matthews, Berlin, 1887), Joseph Kimhi attacks the philological See also:work of. the greatest See also:French See also:Talmud See also:scholar of that See also:day, R. See also:Jacob See also:Tam, who espoused the antiquated See also:system of Menaheni b.Saruq, and this he supplements by an See also:independent critique of See also:Menahem. This work is a mine of varied exegetical and philological details. He also wrote commentaries—the See also:majority of which are lost—on a See also:great number of the scriptural books. Those on See also:Proverbs and See also:job have been published. He composed an apologetic work under the See also:title Sefer Ha-Berith ("Book of the See also:Bond "), a fragment of which is extant, and translated into Hebrew the ethico-philosophical work of Bahya See also:ibn Paquda (" Duties of the See also:Heart ").

In his commentaries he also made contributions to the See also:

comparative philology of Hebrew and Arabic. Mosxs Kling was the author of a Hebrew grammar, known—after the first three words—as Mahalak Shebile Ha-daat, or brieflyas Mahalak. It is an elementary introduction to the study of Hebrew, the first of its See also:kind, in which only the most indispensable See also:definitions and rules have a See also:place, the See also:remainder being almost wholly occupied by paradigms. See also:Moses Kimhi was .the first who made the verb paqadh a See also:model for conjugation, and the first also who introduced the now usual sequence in the enumeration of See also:stem-forms. His handbook was of great See also:historical importance as in the first See also:half of the 16th See also:century it became the favourite See also:manual for the study of Hebrew among non-Judaic scholars (1st ed., See also:Pesaro, 1508). See also:Elias Levita (q.v.) wrote Hebrew explanations, and See also:Sebastian See also:Munster translated it into Latin. Moses Kimhi also composed commentaries to the biblical books; those on Proverbs, See also:Ezra and See also:Nehemiah are in the great rabbinical bibles falsely ascribed to See also:Abraham ibn Ezra.

End of Article: JOSEPH KIMHI

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