Isaac Ben Elijah Sheni (Shani)

Turkish rabbi; lived at Constantinople in the first half of the sixteenth century. The name "Sheni" is followed by the letters , which Steinschneider ("Cat. Bodl." col. 1155) suggests should be read as , the initials of the eulogy "Nafsho Ẓerurah bi-Ẓeror ha-Ḥayyim." Isaac wrote a work called "Me'ah She'arim," a double commentary, simple and cabalistic, on one hundred of the six hundred and thirteen commandments (Salonica, 1543). He also revised and edited Menahem Recanati's "Ṭa'ame ha-Miẓwot" (Salonica, 1544). He is, perhaps, identical with Isaac ibn Farḥi (Steinschneider, l.c.).

Bibliography:

  * Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i., No. 1162; iii., No. 1162;
  * Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, ii. 74;
  * Zunz, Z. G. p. 453;
  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1155;
  * Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 276.



S. S. M. Sel.