AARON BEN SAMUEL: Hebrew author; born about 1620; flourished in
Germany during the latter half of the seventeenth century. He
published his "Bet Aharon" (Aaron's House) at Frankfort-on-the-
Oder in 1690, being at that time of advanced age. This work,
which received the approval of the greatest rabbinic authorities
of the time, gives the places in the Talmud, the Midrashim, the
Zohar, and many other rabbinic and cabalistic works where each
verse of the Bible is either cited or explained. Although Aaron
owes much to his predecessors (Aaron of Pesaro, Jacob Sasportas,
Manasseh ben Israel, and others), his work, because of its
completeness, is a monument of remarkable industry and wide
reading. In the introduction he states that he spent ten long
years at the work, although assisted by several scholars who
lived with him for this purpose. In this introduction Aaron
mentions three of his other works, which, however, seem to have
been lost: (1) "Sissera Torah," a midrashic commentary on
Judges, iv. v.; (2) "Ḥibbur M