Ibn Ya?ya, Gedaliah ben David
IBN YA?YA, GEDALIAH BEN DAVID
IBN YA?YA, GEDALIAH BEN DAVID (1436–1487), physician and philosopher. Born in Lisbon, he left Portugal with the intention of settling in Ere? Israel, but on the way stopped in Constantinople, where he became head of a yeshivah. His attempt to accede to the Karaite request to be accepted into the fold of rabbinic Judaism was thwarted by the opposition of the other rabbis. He subsequently set out for Ere? Israel, but died on the way, and was buried in Safed. He wrote several books, one of which, Sheva Einayim, was published (Constantinople, n.d., and Venice n.d.). It is so called ("Seven Eyes," cf. Zech. 3:9) because it deals with seven motives which the author regards as cardinal to Judaism.
bibliography:
Gedaliah ibn Ya?ya, Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah (Warsaw, 1877), 85; Rosaries, Togarmah, 1 (19302), 47; E. Carmoly, Divrei ha-Yamim li-Venei Ya?ya (1850), 16–17.
[Hirsch Jacob Zimmels]