User:הסרפד/Yehiel of Paris

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Identity
Not to be confused with Yehiel "the Elder" of Paris.

Vivant of Meaux in Paris? (Loeb, Gross)

"Si Vivit" of Alexandria? (Kedar, Limor, Emanuel)

Yehiel ben Jacob ha-Levi? (Urbach = Yehiel ben Yosef, A. Freiman, )

Death
Formerly, Yehiel was believed to have died either in the Land of Israel, or on board ship en route to Israel. His date of death is given variously as early as 1265 or as late as 1292.

Carmoly

Issue
At least two children of Yehiel are known, and several others are disputed.

His eldest son was Yosef, named for his father. Yosef is best known for his journey to the Holy Land...

Yosef and Dieu-le-sault/Délicieux may be/probably identical.

Gross Delicieux: Asaf (interpreting תוצאות ארץ ישראל only)

Other sons assigned to Yehiel are Eliezer, Avraham, Isaac, Benjamin and Samuel, though all of these have been disputed.

Asher ben Yechiel (ben Uri, of Germany), a disciple of Yehiel's contemporary, Meir of Rothenburg, was thought by Giovanni Bernardo de Rossi to have been the son of Yehiel (ben Yosef, of Paris); as was Yehiel's disiple Perez ben Elijah, due to a misprint, corrected in later editions, in Abraham Zacuto's Yuḥasin. Another questionable son is Eliezer, proposed by Gross (who noted Steinschneider's doubts ) but asserted by Emanuel to be the product of a cataloging error by Giuseppe Simone Assemani.

Of his sons-in-law, the best known is Isaac of Corbeil, author of Sefer HaMitzvot. Mordechai ben Hillel, author of the Mordechai, was formerly believed to have been Yehiel son-in-law.

Elati

Isaac of Corbeil, Joseph ben Abraham, not Mordechai

French epitaphs
Longpérier Schwab Levi's criticism of Schwab's methodology

Nahon Dectot

Reanalysis by Emanuel

Stepson
Moshe ha-Levi

Yeshiva
Location: Yavetz Ben Zvi

Disciples: (Gross, Freimann ) Nathan ben Judah Yaqar of Chinon–challenged Netanel of Chinon Meir of Rothenburg—challenged, not literal Joseph ben Nathan Official, Perez ben Elijah, Benjamin author of the North French Hebrew Miscellany

Works

 * Tosafot
 * Psakim
 * Ed. Pines
 * Shaanan
 * Unpublished
 * Lost
 * Pidyon ha-Ben (Moriah 119 p 13–4; Meorot haRishonim vol 1 p 293–4)
 * Responsa

Legends
According to legend, as recorded in Gedaliah ibn Yahya's Shalshelet HaKabbalah, Yechiel was learned in practical kabbalah and performed miracles. According to Ibn Yahya, Yechiel had a lamp that would be lit every Sabbath Eve and would burn, without oil, for the entire week. Rumor of the magical lamp reached the King, who summoned Yechiel to question him...

Legend of wine... The legend of the wine is not unique to Yehiel; similar legends are told about Maimonides and others.

According to Carmoly, the legends of Yechiel are typical of the fantastic account of medieval historians, the likes of which can be found throughout Ibn Yahya's book, and are completely fictitious, although Basnage took them for historical fact, suggesting that the lamp used phosphorus.

Israel Abrahams, though admitting that Yechiel's lamp and door device are legendary, believes that they give evidence of his reputation for artistic craft.

Kohut suggested the "seductive theory" that the story Yechiel's lamp, though "one of many quaint legends of the Middle Ages", is perhaps a reference to radium.

Eliphas Lévi writes of Yechiel's magic lamp and nail, and of his interaction with the king, and believes that he had mastered the basics of electricity. Arthur Edward Waite, in his annotated translation of Levi's Histoire de la Magie, attributes the story of Rabbi Yechiel to Giulio Bartolocci, and ultimately to Ibn Yahya, (and elements thereof to Garinet, citing Sauval) and asserts that Yechiel's device for throwing unwelcome visitors to the floor was neither magical nor electrical, merely a trapdoor. He

Bédarride

Jewish folklorist records the story in his Buch der Sagen und Legenden Jüdischer Vorzeit, Berdiczewski

Dictionnaire Infernal Hottinger

The legend of Yechiel's hammer and nail, as related by Sauval, is the source of the legendary rabbi "Zéchiélé" and his magical hammer mentioned by Claude Frollo in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame; and explain Frollo's reference, immediately prior, to the magic lamp of Cassiodorus.