JACOB BEN SHESHET GERONDI:
Spanish cabalist of Gerona (whence his surname "Gerondi") in the thirteenth century. He was the author of "Sha'ar ha-Shamayim," a cabalistic essay published by M. Mortara in "Oẓar Neḥmad" (iii. 153 et seq.), and of "Meshib Debarim Nekoḥim," an apologetic work in defense of the Cabala, in thirty chapters, still in manuscript (Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." Nos. 1585, 1586). According to the preface, he composed this apology against a certain work full of heterodoxy. He refers to another work that he had written, and quotes Ibn Ezra, Maimonides, Ezra (Azriel), R. Joseph bar Samuel, and Samuel ibn Tibbon's "Yiḳḳawu ha-Mayim."
Bibliography:
- Grätz, Gesch. 3d ed., vii. 302;
- Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, s.v.
