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Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils
Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils (fl. middle of the 11th c.) was a French rabbi, Talmudist, Bible commentator, and payyeṭan. He is also known by the Hebrew name Tov Elem, a Hebrew translation from the French name "Bonfils." Of his life nothing is known but that he came from Narbonne, and was rabbi of Limoges in the province of Anjou. The ability and activity of Bonfils are best judged from his contributions to the poetry of the synagogue, no less than sixty-two of his piyyuṭim occupying prominent places in the French, German, and Polish liturgies. (Joseph Bonfils must not be confused, as he is by Azulai, with another scholar of the same name, who lived in 1200 and corresponded with Simḥah of Speyer (Responsa of Meïr ben Baruch of Rothenburg. ed. Cremona, No. 148).) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_ben_Samuel_Bonfilsאֶזְכְּרָה מָצוֹק | Ezkerah Matsōk (“I remember the distress”), a seliḥah for the Fast of Tevet attributed to Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils (11th c.)
Contributed on: 05 Jan 2020 by ❧
“Ezkera Matsok” (I remember the distress) is a seliḥah in alphabetic acrostic recited on the Fast of Tevet in the Ashkenazi nusaḥ minhag Polin. . . .
Maaravot for the first night of Shavuot, by Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils
Contributed on: 26 May 2024 by ❧
The maaravot-cycle of piyyutim for the first night of Shavuot, by Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils. In normative maaravot fashion, it is one extended cycle with an overarching structure (the first words of each of the Ten Commandments) throughout the whole of the kriat shema, with additional piyyutim incorporated into the first blessing after the shema. . . .
