EZOBI, JOSEPH BEN ḤANAN BEN NATHAN:
Liturgical poet; lived at Perpignan in the thirteenth century. He was the author of thefollowing: (1) three liturgical poems, the first on the Feast of Pentecost, the second (found in the Avignon ritual), on the ten martyrs under Hadrian (English paraphrase by Israel Gollancz in "Jewish Chronicle," July 19, 1901), and the third a seliḥah beginning with 
; (2) "Ḳa'arat Kesef," a poem of 130 distichs, composed for the wedding of his son Samuel (Constantinople, 1523); in it Ezobi advises his son how to comport himself in society, and what studies he ought to pursue. He recommends the study of the Talmud together with the commentaries of Alfasi and Maimonides, and warns him against Greek science, which resembles the fruits of Sodom and Gomorrah. The "Ḳa'arat Kesef" was translated into Latin by Reuchlin (Tübingen, 1512-14) and by Jean Mercier (Paris, 1561); into English by I. Freedman in "J. Q. R." viii. 535.
Ezobi was also the author of a ritual work entitled "Sefer Millu'im," known only by a quotation of Solomon ben Adret (Responsa, ed. Constantinople, p. 25).
- Zunz, Literaturgesch. p. 480;
- Carmoly, La France Israélite, p. 81;
- Geiger, in He-Ḥaluẓ, ii. 13;
- Landshuth, 'Ammude, ha-'Abodah, p. 90;
- Renan-Neubauer, Les Ecrivains Juifs, pp. 701 et seq.;
- Gross, Gallia Judaica, pp. 458-459.
