Isaac ben Moses Arama was a Spanish rosh yeshiva, talmudic commentator, preacher, and philosophically-oriented exegete. He served as rosh yeshiva in Zamora and later as chief rabbi of Tarragona. The poor inhabitants of that city could not support a beit midrash but implored him to give public lessons and sermons. His sermonic style, fusing didactic philosophical and ethical teachings, served as a model for generations of darshanim, or preachers. These sermons formed the basis of his masterpiece, "Akedat Yitzchak." Later, he served as chief rabbi in other cities. When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, he moved with his son, Meir, to Portugal and then from there to southern Italy. He greatly admired Rambam but felt that the philosophical commentators who succeed him took Rambam's philosophical approach in directions he never intended. Arama's teachings are brought so consistently, and often without attributation, by Isaac Abarbanel in his commentaries that Meir Arama accused Abarbanel of plagiarizing his father's works.
Works on Sefaria
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