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Pinḥas ben Yosef ha-Levi of Toledo

Pinḥas ben Yosef ha-Levi (fl. 13th c.) was a Hebrew poet and paytan in Toledo. According to some scholars Pinḥas was the brother of Aharon ha-Levi of Barcelona to whom the Sefer ha-Ḥinukh is attributed. He was one of the rivals of Todros b. Judah Abulafia in the court of Don Caq de la Maleha. To entertain Don Caq, Todros from time to time conducted a poetic controversy with Phinehas in the course of which they exchanged with one another thirty-five short poems, generally filled with contempt and fault-finding. While the poems themselves have little literary value, they are of great importance for knowledge of the contemporary mode of life and society. In one of his poems, published in Abulafia's Gan ha-Meshalim ve-ha-Ḥidot, Pinḥas addresses Don Caq and attempts to persuade him to renew his benefactions toward him; he had been driven away, in his opinion, through the effort of Todros, and had fallen victim to a base charge. His Azharot for the Sabbath preceding Rosh Ha-Shanah, Elohim Niẓẓav ba-Adat El ("God stands in the divine congregation"), together with their reshut, Asir Tikvah le-Keẓ Yamim ("Prisoner of hope for the end of days"), was published in the maḥzor according to the custom of Catalonia (Salonika, 1526). It is not known whether he is identical with the poet Pinḥas ha-Levi, also called Don Vidal Profiat, who lived in Spain in the 13th century and who forsook poetry, devoting himself to agriculture. His friend, the poet Abraham Bedersi, who regarded agriculture as degrading labor, derided him with great contempt in one of his poems, and even rejoiced at his misfortune when all his produce went up in flames.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/phinehas-ben-joseph-ha-levi
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אזהרות לשבת לפני ראש השנה לחכם ר׳ פנחס הלוי זלה״ה | Azharah and Pizmon for the Shabbat before Rosh haShanah, by Pinḥas ben Yosef ha-Levi of Toledo

Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Pinḥas ben Yosef ha-Levi of Toledo

Azharot are a genre of piyyut today associated almost exclusively with the grand lists of mitsvot recited on Shavuot, but this is not strictly accurate. An azharah is any poetic listing of mitsvot, and often would be recited on the Shabbat before a holiday as a reminder of the halakhot of the upcoming day. In Western Ashkenazi practice, for instance, an extensive azharah by Joseph Bonfils is recited for Shabbat haGadol before Pesaḥ. Presented here is an azharah and pizmon for the Shabbat before Rosh haShanah, by the 13th century Toledan payṭan Pinḥas ben Yosef ha-Levi. This text was published in the old Salonika Catalonian rite at the beginning of this maḥzor. Much of the translation is based on the work of Prof. Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel, published in Hebrew in 1985.



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