The Menorat HaMaor (מנורת המאור, “The Candelabrum of Light”) is a major work of Jewish ethical literature, composed by Rabbi Yisrael ben Yosef Alnaqua (Al-Naqua) in Toledo in the fourteenth century. Father of Rab Éphraïm Al-Naqua, founder of the Encaoua line in Tlemcen, he is the first transmitter of Jewish thought identified by David Encaoua. His work is the spiritual and intellectual bedrock upon which the entire family tradition rests.
The Menorat HaMaor is a work of Musar (Jewish ethics) in 20 chapters. Written in simple and accessible Hebrew, it blends practical halakhic instructions for daily life — prayer, study of the Torah, conduct in business — with profound ethical teachings on humility, charity, love of one's neighbor, and self-mastery. Rabbi Yisrael's ambition was to make the wisdom of the Talmud accessible to all, including the simplest people, by gathering teachings scattered throughout rabbinic literature into a single candelabrum of light.
The work is organized around twenty thematic chapters, preceded by a liturgical poem (Piyyut) and an Introduction in which the author recounts his mystical vision of a golden candelabrum. The chapters cover: I. Charity (Tsedaka) — II. Prayer (Tefila) — III. Repentance (Teshuva) — IV. Humility (Anava) — V. Study of the Torah — VI. The Commandments (Mitsvot) — VII. Acts of Kindness (Gemilut Hasadim) — VIII. Shabbat and the Festivals — IX. Honor due to Parents — X. Marriage — XI. The Education of Children — XII. Conduct in Business — XIII. The Judge and Justice — XIV. Contentment — XV. The Mastery of Anger — XVI. Flattery and Mockery — XVII. Love of One's Neighbor — XVIII. Slander (Lashon Hara) — XIX. The Keeping of Secrets — XX. Good Manners (Derekh Erets).
The Menorat HaMaor is frequently cited in major later works such as the Shenei Luchot HaBrit (Shelah) of Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz and the Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles). An abridgment was published in Krakow in 1593. The complete manuscript was published in four volumes in the United States in 1929–1934 by the editor H.G. Enelow. The work is today available in full text on Sefaria.org (public domain) and, for the first time in a complete French translation, on Encaoua.org.
Rabbi Yisrael ben Yosef Alnaqua died a martyr during the massacres of the summer of 1391. According to the tradition reported by Didier Nebot in Le Manuscrit Sacré, he was burned alive on June 6, 1391, in the synagogue of Écija (near Séville). The Encyclopedia Judaica instead places the event in Toledo. Both versions testify to the extreme brutality of the events. Tradition reports that he perished holding a Sefer Torah in his hand. His son, Rabbi Éphraïm Aln'Kaoua, fled Spain and founded the Encaoua line in Tlemcen, carrying with him his father's intellectual heritage.
The integrated reader on Encaoua.org allows one to read the 20 chapters of the Menorat HaMaor in French translation, with access to the original Hebrew text via the Sefaria API. The French translation, produced especially for this project, is the first complete French translation of this founding work. The reader is accessible from the menu Explore → Menorat HaMaor, or from the home page.
The MMJMM project (Manuscripts & Memories of the Judaism of the Medieval Maghreb) catalogs 800 to 1,500 manuscripts dispersed across 12 institutions, among which the copies of the Menorat HaMaor preserved at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.