Moshe ha-Darshan

Moshe haDarshan (circa early 11th century) (Hebrew: משה הדרשן, trans. "Moses the preacher") was chief of the yeshiva of Narbonne, and perhaps the founder of Jewish exegetical studies in France. Along with Rashi, his writings are often cited as the first extant writings in Zarphatic, the Judæo-French language.

According to Abraham Zacuto,^[1] Moses was descended from a Narbonne family distinguished for its erudition; his great-grandfather, Abun, his grandfather, Moses ben Abun, and his father, Jacob ben Moses ben Abun (called "ha-Navi"), all having been presidents of the Narbonne yeshivah. Moses himself held this position, and after his death it was occupied by his brother Levi.^[2]

^ This appears in a manuscript, in the possession of the Alliance Israélite Universelle as of 1903, containing those parts of Zacuto's Sefer Yuḥasin that are omitted in Samuel Shullam's edition. See Isidore Loeb, Joseph Haccohen et les Chroniqueurs Juifs, in R. E. J. xvi. 227.
^ See Rabbeinu Tam, Sefer ha-Yashar, ed. Vienna, No. 620, p. 74.

[1] This appears in a manuscript, in the possession of the Alliance Israélite Universelle as of 1903, containing those parts of Zacuto's Sefer Yuḥasin that are omitted in Samuel Shullam's edition. See Isidore Loeb, Joseph Haccohen et les Chroniqueurs Juifs, in R. E. J. xvi. 227.

[2] See Rabbeinu Tam, Sefer ha-Yashar, ed. Vienna, No. 620, p. 74.

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