ר׳ יעקב בן ששת גירונדי

ר׳ יעקב בן ששת גירונדי was a thirteenth-century Catalan kabbalist and writer associated with the celebrated mystical circle of Girona. Almost nothing securely personal survives: his parents, teachers, birth and death dates, family, offices and travels are unknown. Sources call him Gerondi and place his activity in Girona, probably also his birthplace. His writings show close knowledge of the teachings of ר׳ יצחק סגי נהור and the Girona kabbalists, including ר׳ עזריאל מגירונה, but he does not call ר׳ יצחק his teacher; a direct discipleship therefore should not be asserted. His major work, משיב דברים נכוחים, is a thirty-chapter response to מאמר יקוו המים by ר׳ שמואל אבן תיבון. It attacks conclusions he considered religiously dangerous while engaging seriously with philosophy and natural science rather than rejecting all rational inquiry. He defended creation, providence, prayer and divine recompense through a kabbalistic account of continuous emanation from the sefirotic realm into the physical world. שער השמים presents kabbalistic teaching in elaborate rhymed prose. Modern scholarship also assigns ספר האמונה והבטחון to him; medieval manuscripts and printings frequently attributed it to ר׳ משה בן נחמן, and alternative authorship proposals were once influential. His writings were later used extensively by ר׳ בחיי בן אשר and ר׳ מנחם רקנאטי, making his thought more influential than the scarcity of explicit medieval citations to his name suggests.