- Sheshet Benveniste
Sheshet ben Isaac ben Joseph Benveniste (lived in the latter half of the twelfth century) was a French Jewish physician and writer. Like
Isaac Benveniste , who is supposed to have been his father, he was styled "Nasi" (prince).Biography
He received his education at
Narbonne , his probable birthplace; afterward he lived atBarcelona , and later atSaragossa , in which city he died about 1209. It is said that he owed his high position to his knowledge of Arabic. He practised medicine, and was the author of a medical work, manuscript copies of which are still extant at Oxford and Munich.Such was his reputation as a physician that patients came long distances to consult him, and some are said to have journeyed even from
Mayence (e.g.,Solomon ben Hananel ). Benveniste, whose generosity is praised byAl-Ḥarizi , was poetically gifted and composed several liturgical songs. Even in his old age he remained a friend of free investigation, as the following epigram onMeïr Abulafia shows::"You ask why 'lustrous' he is named,":"Though he the light so cheaply rated;":"Because the dusk we 'twilight' name:":"By language-contrasts thoughts are mated."
Benveniste directed a letter to the congregation of
Lunel , in answer to the epistle of Abulafia to that congregation, in which he freely expresses himself upon the value ofMaimonides 's "Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah," because it enabled the laity to control the judgments rendered by the Rabbis. He carried on a lively correspondence with NasiKalonymus ben Ṭodros and withLevi ben Moses of Narbonne, where his brother Joseph also resided. He lost his three sons in their prime.References
*
Moritz Steinschneider , Hebr. Bibl. xiii. 106 et seq.;
*Heinrich Grätz , Gesch.der Juden, vi. 1, note 1; vii. 41;
*idem, "Schechet Benveniste über Maimuni's Wirksamkeit", in Monatsschrift, xxv. 509 et seq. (the letter is reprinted in Grätz, Hebr. tr. H. Appendix, p. 11);
*Revue. Etudes Juives, xxxix. 62 et seq., 217 et seq.External links
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=777&letter=B Source]
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