Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils

This article is about the 11th-century French Talmudist. For the 14th-century Spanish supercommentary on the ibn Ezra, see Joseph ben Eliezer Bonfils.

Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils was a French rabbi, Talmudist, Bible commentator, and payyetan (author of piyyutim) of the mid-eleventh century. He is also known by the Hebrew name Yosef Tov Elem (יוסף טוב עלם), a Hebrew translation from the French name "Bonfils."[1]

Of his life nothing is known but that he came from Narbonne, and was rabbi of Limoges in the province of Anjou.[2]

Samson of Coucy was one of his descendants.[3]

Joseph Bonfils must not be confused, as he is by Azulai, with another scholar of the same name, who lived in 1200 and corresponded with Simḥah of Speyer.[4]

  1. ^ Jon Douglas Levenson (1993). The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and Historical Criticism: Jews and Christians in Biblical Studies. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-664-25407-0.
  2. ^ See Jacob Tam's "Sefer ha-Yashar," ed. Rosenthal, p. 90, and ed. Vienna, p. 74b; the passage is badly corrupted.
  3. ^ Public Domain Gotthard Deutsch; S. Mannheimer (1905). "SAMSON BEN SAMSON". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 4. Retrieved Jan 3, 2021.
  4. ^ Responsa of Meir of Rothenburg, ed. Cremona, No. 148