CHANNAEL, R., the son of the celebrated R. Chusiel, the president of the Jewish community at Kairnan (afterwards Mahadia), flourished about 950-98o A.D. He wrote glosses on the Talmud, on the jurisprudence of the Bible and Talmud, and composed liturgies. He also wrote a com mentary on the Pentateuch, which, owing to its antiquity, is of peculiar interest to the biblical stu dent, inasmuch as it chews the ancient mode of interpretation. A few specimens will shew how expositors tried to grapple with difficult passages. Upon Gen. xxxi. 19, and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's,' he remarks, she stole them to convince her father, that a god which cannot protect himself from being stolen is of no use, just as it is said, if he (Baal) be a god, let him plead for himself because one hath cast down his altar' ( Judg. vi. 31) ; and again, wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God ? but thou shalt be a man and no God in the hand of him that slayeth thee' (Ezek. xxviii. 9).' Bishop Patrick gives the same explanation of this passage. Upon Exod. iv. to, I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue,' he remarks ' the statement of the two things, viz. ilthnn rIn1=, skews that our
teacher Moses could neither pronounce distinctly the dentals this being indicated by the first assertion i 1Mm, nor the Linguals 1.1)"tn ; and hence the second assertion i1vb1=.' So alsc Ibn Esra, who has evidently taken it from Chan nael. Upon Exod. iii. 22, ' but every woman shall,' etc., he remarks profane be the thought that God, blessed be his name, authorised his people to de ceive the Egyptians to borrow from them vessels of gold and vessels of silver, and not return them.
The word means to ask, to request a present, thus it is used in Judg. viii. 24, Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you (;,..; r6t,u, bnn), that you would give me,' etc. The learned Rapaport has collected the surviving frag ments of this commentary, and published them with explanatory notes, and a biography of the author, under the title rrTinn 511 n" 1 vn)tn b+nrb, in the Hebrew Annual called Bicure Ha. itim, vol. xii. Vienna, i83i.—C. D. G.