ABOAB, ISACCO. - Rabbi who lived around 1300 in Spain. In his work Menôrâth ha-mâôr (“the candelabrum of lights”), he sets forth in popular form the Talmudic and Midrashic passages concerning moral principles and duties, addressing himself “to young and old, learned and ignorant, men and women.”
In seven chapters (“lights”), A., following Saadjâ, divides the precepts of the Torâh into revealed and rational precepts. The former aim “to instil right faith in the existence of the Creator,” while the latter serve “to ennoble our customs and to place the common good on solid foundations.” A. was the first in Spain to draw upon Aggadic sources in order to emphasize their moral and educational value, and he reproached his contemporaries for devoting too much attention to Talmudic casuistry while neglecting the Aggadic part. At the time when philosophical studies were about to yield place to cabalistic currents, A. on the one hand followed the rational biblical exegesis of Ibn Ezra and Maimonide, and on the other found in Sacred Scripture “mysteries and secret allusions of another kind that extend unto infinity,” thus following the mystical exegesis of Nahmanide; he also cites the cabalist Isaac ibn Latif. The purpose of earthly existence
is self-perfection through study and good works. A.’s work went through a long series of editions and was translated several times into German and Spanish.