Angel, Meir Ben Abraham, Of Belgrade

A renowned preacher who lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and died in Safed (Palestine) after having traveled through Poland, Italy, and Greece. He wrote "Masoret ha-Berit" (Tradition of the Covenant), 700 homilies on texts strung together according to certain Masoretic lists, published at Cracow, in 1619. His "Masoret ha-Berit ha-Gadol," containing 1,650 homilies of the same character, was published at Mantua, in 1622. He also wrote an ethical work, "Ḳeshet Neḥushah" (Bow of Bronze), in verse alternating with rimed prose. He pictures a sort of moral combat in which the tendency to do ill is personified. This was published, about the year 1593, at Belyedere, near Constantinople, by Reyna, the widow of Joseph Nasi. He speaks of a commentary on Abot, which, however, seems not to have been published.

Bibliography:

  * Conforte, Ḳore ha-Dorot, p. 51b;
  * Carmoly, Itinéraires de la Terre Sainte, p. 198;
  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. No. 6290.



M. L. M.