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[German Version] (c. 1200, Gerona, Spain – November 1263, Toledo, Spain), rabbinic mystic, headed Talmudic academies in Barcelona and Toledo. His books on ethics pioneered the antirationalist school of Jewish ethical literature (Sifrut musar). Gerondi endeavored to systematize and spiritualize the regulations of the Talmud. In his concern for social ethics, he was influenced by the asceticism of Judah ha-Nasi. According to legend, he prompted the burning of the philosophical works of M. Maimonides (1235), an act for which he later offered a public apology. Carsten Wilke Bibliography Works include: Sha'arei teshuva, 1505 etc.; ET: The Gates of Repentance, 1976 Sefer ha-yir'a, Sod ha-teshuva, Iggeret ha-teshuva, and Dat ha-nashim, 1565 etc. Commentaries on Pirkei avot, 1848, Proverbs, 1910, and the Pentateuch, 1980 On Gerondi: A.T. Shrock, Rabbi Jonah ben Abraham of Gerona, 1948 Y. Ta-Shema, “Chasidut Ashkenaz biSefarad: Rabenu Yona Gerondi,” in: Halut àhar gōla, FS H. Beinart, 1988, 165–194.

[German Version] I. Terminology The Hebrew title רַבִּי/ rabbî is derived from the nominalized adjective רַב/ rab, “great, of high rank,” which in postbiblical Hebrew took on the meaning “master” (Rav) in contrast to a slave or student/disciple ( …