Nethanel ben Isaiah (in Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

, Netaniel ben Yeshaiahu) was a Yemenite Jewish rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

, Biblical

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 commentator and poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 of the fourteenth century. He is best known as the author of a homiletic commentary on the Torah

Torah

Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 entitled Nur al-Zulm wa-Mashbah al-Hikm. The first notice of this work was given by Jacob Saphir

Jacob Saphir

Jacob Saphir was a Meshulach and traveler of Rumanian descent, born in Oshmyany, government of Wilna.While still a boy he went to Palestine with his parents, who settled at Safed, and at their death in 1836 he moved to Jerusalem...

, who saw a manuscript of it at Hirbah, a small town in Yemen

Yemen

The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

, in 1863. But the beginning of the manuscript was missing, and Saphir's statement that the author's name was Isaiah and that the title was Al-Nur wal-Zulm depends only upon hearsay. Two other manuscripts, one in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and one in the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

, bear the author's name, Nethanel ben Isaiah, and the full title of the work, Nur al-Zulm wa-Mashbah al-Hikm wa-Ikhraj al-Ma'ani fi al-Wujud Ba'd al'Adm. Alexander Kohut

Alexander Kohut

Alexander Kohut was a rabbi and orientalist. He belonged to a family of rabbis, the most noted among them being Rabbi Israel Palota, his great-grandfather, Rabbi Amram , and Rabbi Chayyim Kitssee,...

 published a monograph on this work, giving some extracts, under the title "Light of Shade and Lamp of Wisdom" (New York, 1894). This title is given by Kohut as the translation of the Arabic title, though "Light out of Darkness" would be a more fitting translation, since Nethanel's introduction shows that his object was to comment on the obscure passages so as to make sure that their meanings should not escape the student.

Nethanel began his work on the 15th of Tammuz, 1640 of the Seleucidan era (June 23, 1328). Its references to Al-Yemen, San‘a’, and Aden

Aden

Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...

 make it appear probable that he wrote it in Yemen, although Steinschneider doubts this It is written in a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew, and the nature of the work is more midrash

Midrash

The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....

ic than exegetical

Exegesis

Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...

. Nethaneel quotes both Talmud

Talmud

The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

im and the Targum

Targum

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...

im, but he is chiefly influenced by the Midrash Rabbah. Of the post-Talmudic authors, he mentions (besides the Geonim

Geonim

Geonim were the presidents of the two great Babylonian, Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the Jewish community world wide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the Resh Galuta who wielded secular authority...

 and Masorites

Masoretes

The Masoretes were groups of mostly Karaite scribes and scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries, based primarily in present-day Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq...

) Ibn Janah, Nathan ben Jehiel

Nathan ben Jehiel

Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome was a Jewish Italian lexicographer. He was born in Rome not later than 1035 to one of the most notable Roman families of Jewish scholars. Owing to an error propagated by Azulai, he has been regarded as a scion of the house of De Pomis...

 (under the designation of "the author of the "Aruk'"), and especially Maimonides

Maimonides

Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...

, who was the paramount authority among the Yemenites and from whom he merely copied long passages. Finally, he mentions such Arabic and Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 sources as the Almagest

Almagest

The Almagest is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths. Written in Greek by Claudius Ptolemy, a Roman era scholar of Egypt,...

, al-Farabi

Al-Farabi

' known in the West as Alpharabius , was a scientist and philosopher of the Islamic world...

, and Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

. Nethanel's commentary comprises explanations according to the numerical value of the letters (gematria

Gematria

Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...

), some philological notes, and polemic

Polemic

A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...

al flings at both Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 and Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

: for instance, in his commentary on Genesis xvii. 20 he designates Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

 the "madman" ("meshugga").

Nethanel calls the five books of the Pentateuch (1) Sefer ha-Yashar, (2) Sefer Mekilta, (3) Torat Kohanim, (4) Homesh ha-Pequdim, and (5) Mishneh Torah, and he gives an Aramaic mnemonic

Mnemonic

A mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...

 formula for the weekly lessons; he is followed in both cases by Mansur al-Dhamari

Hoter ben Shlomo

Hoter ben Shlomo, was a scholar and philosopher from Yemen who was heavily influenced by the earlier works of Nethanel ben al-Fayyumi, Maimonides,...

 in his Siraj al-'Uqul. Nethaneel illustrated his commentary with numerous figures and diagrams—e.g., of the Cave of Machpelah, the altar, the Menorah, etc. He inserted in his work three Hebrew poems, two of which were published by Kohut in his above-mentioned "Light of Shade and Lamp of Wisdom." Nethaneel is often quoted under the designation of "ibn Yesha'yah" by Mansur al-Dhamari and by Daud al-Lawani in his philosophical commentary on the Pentateuch entitled al-Wajiz al-Mujna.

Resources

• "Nethaneel ben Isaiah." Jewish Encyclopedia
  Jewish Encyclopedia
  The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...
  
  . Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906, citing:
• Neubauer, in Jewish Quarterly Review
  Jewish Quarterly Review
  The Jewish Quarterly Review is an peer-reviewed academic journal which focuses on Jewish studies. It is published quarterly for the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The current editors are Elliott Horowitz...
  
  vii. 350;
• Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl. xiii. 59;

• idem, Die Arabische Literatur der Juden, § 188.