Benveniste

Benveniste a name common to a number of Jewish writers, of whom we mention the following. SEE BENBENISTA.

1. CHAJIM, rabbi at Smyrna, was born in 1600 at Constantinople, and died in 1673. He is the author of ס8 כנסת הגדולה, an extensive commentary on the Arba Turim of Jacob ben-Asheri (q.v.), published at Constantinople and Lvorno.

2. ISRAEL, who died at Constantinople in 1627, wrote ס8 בֵּית יַשׂרָאֵל, or a collection of fifty-two lectures on the Pentateuch, repentance, etc., edited by his son Abraham (Constantinople, 1678).

3. JOSHUA, a brother of Chajim, author of יהוֹשֻׁע אָזנֵי, or sixty-seven lectures on the Pentateuch, edited by S. Gaabbai (Constantinople, 1677); שׂדֵה יהוֹשֻׁעִ, or a commentary on the Hagadoth of the Jerusalem Talmud.

4. MEIR, who wrote under the title of אוֹת אֶמֶת, emendations on the Midrashim, as Sifra, Sifre, Mechitta Tanchuma, and Jalkut (Salonichi, 1565; Prague, 1624).

5. Moses, author of פּנֵי משֶׁה, or decisions on Jacob ben-Asheri's (q.v.) Arba Turim (Constantinople, 1671 1719). See Furst, Bibl. Jud. i, p. 106 sq.; De Rossi, Dizionario Storico (Germ. transl.), p. 56. (B. P.)