Illescas, Jacob De

Illescas, Jacob de (יעקיב דילישקאש), a Jewish philosopher and commentator, flourished in the 14th century at Illecas, not far from Madrid, whence his family derived their name. He wrote a Commentary on the Pentateuch (contained in Frankfurter's great Rabbinic Bible) in an allegorical, cabalistic sense, with many valuable grammatical explanations of difficult passages. He also paid particular attention to obscure passages of Rashi and Aben-Ezra's expositions on this portion of the Hebrew Scriptures, and freely quotes other celebrated Jewish literati, as Lekach Tob, Joseph, Tam, Bechor Shor, Jehudah the Pious, Isaac of Vienna, Moses de Coney, Aaron, Eljakim, the Tosafoth, etc. See Kitto, Cyclop. Biblical Liter. 2, 378; Fürst, Biblioth. Jud. 2, 91.