Examples of the spelling "Benbenesti"

These are all the same Rabbi Benbenest(i) who appears in WRR's list.

  1. Example 1: S. Z. Havlin, Rabbi Avraham Halevi and the Scholars of his Time and Place, Hebrew University, 1983, page 627.
  2. Example 2: S. Z. Havlin, Preface to "The Rashba Responsa", National Library of Israel, 1977, page 37.
  3. Example 3: S. Z. Havlin, Book review in Volume 16 of Aley-Sefer, Bar Ilan University, 1990, page 159.

Examples of the spelling "Abulafia"

The first two are the same Rabbi Abulafia who appears in WRR's list, while the other two are further examples for the same family name.

  1. Example 1: S. Z. Havlin, Rabbi Avraham Halevi and the Scholars of his Time and Place, Hebrew University, 1983, page 626.
  2. Example 2: S. Z. Havlin, ibid, page 489.
  3. Example 3: S. Z. Havlin, Article "Talmud" in Encyclopedia Hebraica.
  4. Example 4: S. Z. Havlin, Book review in Volume 18 of Aley-Sefer, Bar Ilan University, 1996, page 204.

Yet another illustration

Professor Havlin wrote the following in his 1996 letter defending the lists of WRR:

"Appellations composed of two or more words do not take the definite article; thus one does not write HBYT YWSP (HaBeit Yosef) or HMHR"Y QARW (HaMahari Caro), since this does not conform to the rules of Hebrew grammar (though various sources may include examples of irregular expressions of this kind, which do not conform to the rules of Hebrew grammar)"

Strangely, Professor Havlin uses such "irregular expressions" in his own professional writings. The second example for Rabbi Benbenest above contains (indicated in green) the very example HBYT YWSP that Professor Havlin chose to illustrate his position.

go back