Nathan of Rome

Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome (Hebrew: נתן בן יחיאל מרומי; Nathan ben Y'ḥiel Mi Romi according to Sephardic pronunciation), known as the Arukh, (c. 1035 – 1106) was a Jewish Italian lexicographer. He was born in Rome not later than 1035 to one of the most notable Roman families of Jewish scholars. Owing to an error propagated by Azulai, he has been regarded as a scion of the house of De Pomis. Now, however, it is regarded as almost a certainty that he belonged to the Anaw (Degli Mansi) family. Nathan's father, R. Jehiel ben Abraham, aside from being an acknowledged authority on the ritual law, was, like the majority of the contemporary Italian rabbis, a liturgic poet.

The details of Nathan's sad life must be excerpted and pieced together from several autobiographic verses appended to the first edition of his lexicon. It appears that he had begun life not as a student, but as a peddler of linen wares, which was then considered a distasteful occupation.

The death of his employer caused him to abandon trade for the Torah. He returned home, where his father began to bestow upon him the treasures of learning, the accumulation of which was continued under foreign masters.

First, Nathan went to Sicily, whither Matzliach ibn al-Batzaq had just returned from a course of study under Hai Gaon, the last of the Pumbedita geonim. It was there that Nathan garnered that Babylonian learning which has led some to the erroneous notion that he had himself pilgrimed to Pumbedita.

Then Narbonne enticed him, where he sat under the prominent exegete and haggadist R. Moses ha-Darshan. On his way home he probably lingered for a while at the several academies flourishing in Italy, notably at Pavia, where a certain R. Moses was head master, and at Bari, where R. Moses Kalfo taught. He arrived home, however, from his scholarly travels some time before the death of his father, which occurred about the year 1070, and which gave him the opportunity of illustrating the simplicity of funeral rites which he had been advocating.

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