Salmon ben Jeroham

Solomon ben Jeroham was a Karaite exegete and controversialist who flourished at Jerusalem between 940 and 960. He was considered one of the greatest authorities among the Karaites, by whom he is called "the Wise" ("ha-Hakam"), and who mention him after Benjamin Nahawendi in their prayers for their dead great teachers (Karaite Siddur, i. 137b).

Response to Saadia

In a work entitled Milḥamot Adonai, (not to be confused with books of the same title by Gersonides and Avraham son of Rambam) of which he produced also an Arabic version that is no longer in existence, Solomon counters the Rabbinites, especially Saadia. It is written in verse and is divided into 19 chapters, each of which contains 22 four-lined strophes. After having endeavored in the first two chapters to demonstrate the groundlessness of the oral tradition, he refutes the seven arguments advanced in its behalf by Saadia in the introduction to his commentary on the Pentateuch. Then he criticizes Saadia's views on the Hebrew calendar, the laws concerning incest, the celebration of the second days of the feasts, etc., and accuses him of terms of having, in his polemics against the Karaites, used arguments which are in direct opposition to the teachings of the Mishnah and the Talmud, and which consequently he must have known to be false. The Milḥamot Adonai is extant in manuscript in various European libraries; parts of it have been published by Pinsker, Geiger, and Kirchheim.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

• Pinsker, Liḳḳuṭe Ḳadmoniyyot, p. 130, and index;
• Fürst, Gesch. des Karäerthums, ii. 75 et seq.;
• Gottlober, Biḳḳoret le-Toledot ha-Ḳara'im, p. 196;
• A. Neubauer, Aus der Petersburger Bibliothek, p. 10;
• P. Frankl, in Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl. xix. 93;
• idem, in Ha-Shaḥar, viii.;
• Kirchheim, in Orient, Lit. vii. 17 et seq.;
• Salfeld, Hohelied, p. 127;
• Steinschneider, Polemische Literatur der Juden, p. 378;
• idem, Hebr. Bibl. vii. 14, xiii. 103;
• idem, Hebr. Uebers. p. 946;
• idem, Die Arabische Literatur der Juden, § 40;
• Samuel Poznanski, in R. E. J. xli. 310;
• idem, in J. Q. R. xiii. 336;
• idem, in Monatsschrift, xliv. 105 et seq.

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article on Solomon ben Jeroham, by Kaufmann Kohler and Isaac Broydé.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)