Menahem Recanati

Works

• Perush 'Al ha-Torah, a work full of mystical deductions and meanings based upon a textual interpretation of the Bible; it describes many visions and celestial revelations claimed to have been experienced by the author, who was influenced by cabalistic ideas, and expresses the highest respect for all cabalistical authors, even the most recent apocryphal ones. The work was republished with a commentary by Mordecai Jaffe, at Lublin in 1595 and was also translated into Latin by Pico di Mirandola.
• Perush ha-Tefillot and Ṭa'ame ha-Miẓwot, published together. Like the preceding work, these are strongly tinctured with German mysticism. Recanati frequently quotes Judah he-Hasid of Regensburg, Eleazar of Worms, and their disciples, and alludes also to the Spanish cabalists, Nahmanides among them. He is rarely original, quoting almost always other authorities. Although Recanati had a high reputation for sanctity, he exercised less influence on his contemporaries than upon posterity. To assist him in his cabalistic researches, he studied logic and philosophy; and he endeavors to support the cabala by philosophical arguments.
• Pisḳe Hilkot, Bologna, 1538.