Enoch ben Abraham

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ENOCH BEN ABRAHAM

ENOCH BEN ABRAHAM (d. after 1662), talmudist and preacher. In 1649, after having served as preacher in Cracow, he left for Gnesen where he was appointed rabbi. He afterward became dayyan at Posen. As a result of the suffering and poverty caused by the Chmielnicki rebellion (1648–49), Enoch left Poland and settled at Oettingen (Germany) where he was appointed rabbi, remaining there, probably until his death. His works, published posthumously, are Vikku'aḥ Yosef ve-ha-Shevatim (Amsterdam, 1680), an attempt to exonerate Joseph's brothers; Reshit Bikkurim (1708), three sermons on God's existence, revelation, and reward and punishment, published as part one of his grandson Enoch b. Judah's book of the same title. The introduction mentions his commentaries on Psalms, Proverbs, and Esther; Berit Olam, homilies on the Bible; and novellae on the Tur Oraḥ Ḥayyim. Some of his responsa, together with those of his son Judah and his grandson, appear in Ḥinnukh Beit Yehudah (1708).

bibliography:

J. Perles, Geschichte der Juden in Posen (1865), 82, 83; J.E. Sokolow, Gan Peraḥim (1890), 120.

[Jacob Hirsch Haberman]