Joseph ibn Habib

Joseph ibn Habiba (Hebrew: יוסף חביבא), also known as Joseph Havivah and Nimmuke Yosef, after the title of his book) was a Spanish Talmudist who flourished in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Nimmuke Yosef

Like his predecessor, R. Nissim ben Reuben (RaN), Ibn Ḥabib wrote a commentary on the halachot of Isaac Alfasi, entitled Nimmuḳe Yosef, published with the text and the commentary of R. Nissim (Constantinople, 1509). Against the opinion of David Conforte (Ḳore ha-Dorot, p. 26a) that Ibn Ḥabib availed himself to write commentaries only upon those treatises which R. Nissim had omitted, Azulai (Shem ha-Gedolim) proved that Ibn Ḥabib's Nimmuḳe Yosef covered the entire halachot of Isaac Alfasi, but a part of it had remained unpublished, and that the commentary to the halachot of Moed Katan and Makkot, attributed to R. Nissim, belongs to Ibn Ḥabib. The latter quotes Asher ben Jehiel, Yom-Tob ben Abraham, his master RaM, and R. Nissim himself. The Nimmuḳe Yosef on Ketubot and Nedarim was also included in the work Ishei Adonai (Leghorn, 1795), and the portion on Shebuot in the Bet ha-Beḥirah (ib. 1795). Azulai says that Ibn Ḥabib was the author of novellæ on the whole Talmud.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

• Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim;
• David Cassel, in Ersch and Gruber, Encyc. section ii., part 31, p. 73;
• Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1449;
• Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 470.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Habib, Joseph ibn". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.