Arukh

Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome (Hebrew: נתן בן יחיאל מרומי, romanized: Nāṯān ben Yəḥiʾel mirRomi, c. 1035 – 1106) was a Jewish Italian lexicographer. He authored the Arukh, a dictionary for Rabbinic Judaism that was the first work to examine Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. He is therefore referred to as "the Arukh." BiographyNathan was born in Rome not later than 1035 to one of the most notable Roman families of Jewish scholars. Owing to an error propagated by Chaim Yosef David Azulai, he has been regarded as a scion of the house of de Pomis. However, according to present scholarship, it is almost a certainty that he belonged to the (ענו, Italian: degli Mansi) family. Aside from being an acknowledged authority on halakha, Nathan's father, Jehiel ben Abraham, was a liturgic poet like most contemporary Italian rabbis. The details of Nathan's sad life must be excerpted and pieced together from several autobiographic verses appended to the first edition of his lexicon. It appears that he began life not as a student but as a peddler of linenwear, which was then considered a distasteful occupation. The death of his employer caused him to abandon trade for the Torah. He