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R. Isaac Aboab (end of the 14th century), rabbinic author and preacher; probably lived in Spain. His father seems to have been called Abraham and may have been the R. Abraham Aboab to whom R. Judah b. Asher of Toledo (d. 1349) addressed responsa (Zikhron Yehudah, 53a and 60a). After devoting most of his life to secular affairs Isaac turned to writing and preaching.
R. Isaac's fame rests upon his Menorat ha-Ma'or, (“Candlestick of Light”), one of the most popular works of religious edification among the Jews in the Middle Ages. Written “for the ignorant and the learned, the foolish and the wise, the young and the old, for men and for women,” the work has had over 70 editions and printings (1st ed. Constantinople, 1514; Jerusalem, 1961) and has been translated into Spanish, Ladino, Yiddish, and German. Moses b. Simeon Frankfort of Amsterdam, who translated the work into Yiddish and wrote a commentary on it (Nefesh Yehudah, Amsterdam, 1701 and many subsequent eds.), also edited a shorter version under the title of Sheva Petilot (“Seven Wicks,” Amsterdam, 1721; Sudzilkow, 1836). The book became a handbook for preachers and served for public reading in synagogues when no preacher was available. |
