Aaron ben Meshullam of Lunel
AARON BEN MESHULLAM OF LUNEL
AARON BEN MESHULLAM OF LUNEL (d. c. 1210), one of the leading scholars of Lunel. He was the son of *Meshullam b. Jacob of Lunel. Aaron studied under *Abraham b. David of Posquières, with whom he subsequently corresponded. A book on the laws of terefot is attributed to him, but it is likely that this treatise is an extract from his work on the Talmud or on the halakhot of Alfasi on tractate Ḥullin.*Meshullam b. Moses, son of Aaron's sister, mentions these novellae of his uncle in his Sefer ha-Hashlamah. Aaron was expert in astronomy and the computation of the calendar and wrote a booklet comparing the Hebrew and Christian calendars. Judah b. Saul ibn *Tibbon, in his will, urges his son Samuel to study this subject with Aaron and to rely upon him and upon his brother Asher. Aaron was an admirer of Maimonides. In the controversy which arose following the criticism by Meir ha-Levi *Abulafia of Maimonides' views on resurrection, Aaron vigorously defended Maimonides in the name of the "sages of Lunel," lauding him as "Prince (nasi) and rabbi, unequaled in East or in West."
bibliography:
Sefer ha-Hashlamah le-Seder Nezikin, ed. by J. Lubetzky, 1 (1885), viii–x; Meir ha-Levi Abulafia, Kitab al-Rasail, ed. by J. Brill (1871), 25–40; Benedikt, in: Sinai, 33 (1953), 62–74; I. Twersky, Rabad of Posquières (1962), 251–3.
[Yehoshua Horowitz]