AL-BARGELONI (i.e. "of Barcelona"), ISAAC BEN REUBEN

AL-BARGELONI (i.e. "of Barcelona"), ISAAC BEN REUBEN (b. 1043), Spanish talmudist and liturgical poet. In a genizah fragment Al-Bargeloni is described as a pupil of *Ḥanokh b. Moses and must, therefore, have studied for some time in Córdoba. His permanent residence was the coastal city of Denia, where he was presumably active as a dayyan until his death. *Naḥmanides was one of his descendants. Abraham *Ibn Daud extols his learning, including him among the four distinguished contemporaries of Isaac Alfasi, also called Isaac. Moses *Ibn Ezra and *Al-Ḥarizi praise his poetical talent, especially his ingenuity in interpolating biblical verses into his poems. This skill is particularly manifest in Isaac's azharot, in which all 145 strophes end with a biblical quotation. The azharot have been included in most North African rites published since 1655 and have been frequently published, both alone and together with those of Solomon ibn *Gabirol. Of Isaac's other poems there are extant two introductions to the azharot, two tokheḥot (one unpublished), two mi-khamokha, and an ahavah. His halakhic works consist of commentaries to single tractates of the Talmud (not preserved), and a translation from Arabic to Hebrew of *Hai Gaon's Sefer ha-Mikkaḥ ve-ha-Mimkar made in 1078. According to Simeon b. Ẓemaḥ *Duran (Responsa 1:15), *Judah b. Barzillai al-Bargeloni was Isaac's pupil.

bibliography:

Rapoport, in: Bikkurei ha-Ittim, 10 (1829), 191; Mann, in: rej, 74 (1922), 157–9; Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 418; J.H. Schirmann, Shirim Ḥadashim min ha-Genizah (1966), 196–200; Ibn Daud, Tradition, index.