JOSEPH BEN ISAAC HA-LEVI:

By: Kaufmann Kohler, Isaac Broydé

Page from the First Edition of the Judæo-German "Yosippon," Zurich, 1546.(From the Sulzberger collection in the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York.)

Lithuanian philosopher of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He was well versed in philosophical works, and when in Prague was asked by Yom-Ṭob Lipman Heller to explain to him the "Moreh Nebukim." He then wrote "Gib'at ha-Moreh," containing criticisms on the "Moreh," published with annotations by Yom-Ṭob Lipman Heller, Prague, 1611. The work is divided into three parts: the first criticizing Maimonides' proofs of the existence of God; the second, on the negation of anthropomorphisms; and the third, on Maimonides' proofs of the unity of God. It is quoted by Joseph Delmedigo in his "Miktab Aḥuz," and was approved by Ephraim Lentschutz, Isaac Katz, and Mordecai Jaffe. In another work, entitled "Ketonet Passim" (ib. 1614), Joseph expounded the principles contained in the "Moreh".

Bibliography:

S. Sachs, in Ẓiyyon, ii. 78;
Zunz, Z. G. p. 288, No. 141;
Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1473;
Fürst, Bibl. Jud. ii. 115.

K. I. Br.