Today, I would like to start writing about one of the most prominent Sephardic rabbis of modern Jewish history, Rabbi Yehuda Bibas. His thoughts and ideas have strongly influenced the history of the nation of Israel in ways that affects us today and hopefully for ever.  The irony is that so little (virtually nothing) has been written about him.  Barely, a few lines in the Jewish encyclopedias.  Even his last name was not properly recorded. One can find Bivas, Bibas, Vivas and even Vidas. Such the fate of many (too many…) Sephardic rabbis from the last five centuries who did so much for Am Israel and were unjustly forgotten by all of us.

The information I got is from a rare book in Spanish  (“Mi padre: David Elnecave”,  written in 1985 by one of his descendants: Señor Nissim Elnecave (1910-1986).  Recently, an article about Rabbi Bibas appeared in the Hebrew version of Wikipedia. In the English Wikipedia there is still nothing.

I got all this information thanks to my friend Rabbi Nissim Elnecave from Miqdash Eliyahu, Brooklyn, who is very knowledgeable in the history of Sephardic Jews.

Today I will share with the readers only part of his biography, and hopefully in the coming weeks we will get more familiar with his creative ideas and his contributions to Am Israel.

Rabbi Yehuda Bibas was born in Gibraltar (G.B.). From his mother side, he was the grandson of the famous Moroccan rabbi Chayim ben Attar, the Or-haChayim-haQadosh (1696-1743). From his father side they belonged to the Moroccan Jewish community of Tetuán, Spanish Morocco.  Rabbi Bibas study as a child in Gibraltar an after the death of his father he moved to Livorno (Italy) to live with his grandfather. Livorno had a very prestigious and educated jewish community. Rabbi Bibas received in Livorno most of his Jewish and secular education, including his title as a physician. He then returned to Gibraltar where he established himself as the Rosh Yeshiba. To his Yeshiba attended students from England, Italy and North Africa. In 1810  he came to London, where he met  with the famous Jewish activist and philanthropist Sir Moises Montefiori (Livorno 1784- London 1885).  By now, the reader understand that rabbi Yehuda Bibas spoke perfectly English, Italian, Spanish and Hebrew, and he was a rabbi and a Physician.   In 1831 rabbi Bibas was appointed as the Chief rabbi of the Corfu Island (today belongs to Greece). Corfu had a very heterogenous and prosperous Jewish community, among them the ‘Corfiot Italians’, Jews from Venice that found refuge in that beautiful Island.

To be continued….

Read more about the Jews of Corfu here

Rabbi Isaac Cantarini was born in Padua, Italy, in 1644. He was a rabbi, poet, writer and physician.  He studied Talmud with Rabbi Salomon Marini, and Hebrew with the poet Moses Catalano. His instructor in the secular studies was Bernardo de Laurentius. Cantarini received his diploma as physician in 1664 from the University of Padua–which unlike other universities in Europe, was open to Jews.  He practiced medicine in Padua for the rest of his life.

As a Rabbi, he very often preached in the Synagogue of Padua. His sermons were frequently attended by Christians, the number of these on one occasion was so great that the Jews had to find seats in the women’s gallery (the Jews, as usual, might have arrived to the lecture later than the gentiles 🙂 .

He also taught in the Yeshivah of Padua, and officiated as cantor, especially on Yom Kippur.  His last name Cantarini, in Hebrew  מהַחַזָּנִים — seems to indicate that he was coming from a family of ‘cantors’. As he had a thorough knowledge of the Talmud, his decisions were often sought in Halakhic cases.  Among his many students were two very famous Rabbis: Moses Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal, Mesilat Yesharim) and Rabbi Isaac Lampronti (see here).

Rabbi Cantarini wrote many books and poems in Hebrew, Italian and Latin. His most famous work is called Pachad Ytzchaq, a description of the attack against the Jewish ghetto of Padua by the Christian populace on August 20, 1684, where Jews were accused of having sided with the Turkish enemy and murdered Christian prisoners-of-war in Budapest. Fortunately, the garrison commander of Padua was able to repel the attackers but the incident made a strong and lasting impact in Rabbi Cantarini.

√ You can find Rabbi Isaac Cantarini book Pachad Ytzchaq here

√ There is also a seven pages article published in 1960 by Harry A. Savitz in “Jewish Forum” Doctor Isaak Hayyim Ha-Kohen Cantarini: Physician, poet, rabbi, preacher, and teacher (1644-1723).

Rabbi Isaac Lampronti was born in Ferrara, Italy.  He studied Torah under the great Italian rabbis of his generation: Manoach Provençal and Isaac Chayim Cantarini. In addition, he studied philosophy and medicine at the University of Padua.  Padua was an important center for Hebrew studies by virtue of its rabbinical academies and the fact that Jews were drawn there from all over Europe to study in its university, which was open to Jews.

At the age of 22, he began to teach in the talmud torah of the Italian community. He introduced many improvements in the curriculum, insisting on the teaching of the humanities concurrently with the study of Torah. In 1718 he was ordained rabbi and in 1743 was appointed head of the Yeshivah – a position which gave him the status of senior rabbi of the city.

Rabbi Lampronti practiced as a physician. He was an outstanding doctor who gave his services for free to those of limited means.  He had a great reputation as physician, and his contemporaries generally added to his name the epithet “the famous physician.”

Rabbi Lampronti’s main reputation, however, rests on the fact that he wrote the first Jewish Encyclopedia Pachad Yitzchaq. Pachad Ytzchaq  is arranged alphabetically, each article including material from the Mishnah, the Talmud, the posekim, the rishonim, and the responsa literature.

In 1872, the city of Ferrara publicly honored the memory of Rabbi Lampronti. A stone tablet was placed on the house in which he had lived bearing the following inscription: “Abitò in questa casa Isacco Lampronti, nato nel MDCLXXIX., morto nel MDCCLVI. Medico Teologo tra i dotti celebratissimo. Onorò la patria. Riverenti alla scienza alcuni cittadini posero MDCCCLXXII.”

Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh (Leon) mi-Modena was born in Venice in 1571.

A prodigious child, he studied Bible, Hebrew language, poetry, letter writing, voice, music, dancing, Italian, and Latin. At the age of 13, he wrote a short book, sur me-ra’, on compulsive gambling and its destructive power.

Modena was commissioned to write for James I a description of Judaism, the Riti Ebraica, the first vernacular description of Judaism written by a Jew for a non-Jewish audience, first published inParis in 1637 and subsequently republished and translated many times.

From his ordination in 1609 until his death, Modena served as the chief Hebrew translator for the government and Cantor of the Italian synagogue.  He ordained candidates for the degree rabbi, including medical students in Padua. He approved the decisions of other rabbis, and authorized books for publication, with the result that by 1618 he was referred to as a gaon, and an excellent, well-known, honored and brilliant preacher. By 1627 Rabbi Modena signed his name first in order among the Venetian rabbis. In 1628 he was maestro di cappella for a Jewish academy of music, Accademia degli Impediti, which was popular both inside and outside the Venetian ghetto.

He also produced an autobiography, Chaye-Yehuda which was recently translated into English, documenting in poignant detail the turbulent life of his family in the Jewish ghetto of Venice. The book also contains accounts of Modena’s sorrow over his three sons: the death of the eldest from the poisonous fumes of his own alchemical laboratory, the brutal murder of the youngest, and the exile of the remaining son who traveled as far as South America.

Rabbi Modena died in 1648.

Click here to read the book sur me-ra’, a philosophical dialogue against gambling, written by Rabbi Modena at the age of 13. This is the version published in Vilna in 1896.

Magen va-hereb, where Rabbi Modena criticizes Christians interpretations of Hebrew scriptures, refuting their claims and dogmas.

She’elot u-Teshubot Ziqnei Yehuda, Collected Responsa on various ‘modern’ subjects.

Bet Lechem Yehuda, an anthology of statements of Talmudic Rabbis organized around ‘en ya’aqob.

Tzemach Tzadiq, an Ethical Treatise.

Leb ha-Aryeh,  a monograph on memory improvement and mnemonics, in which he greatly extols the use of memory techniques to remember the 613 commandments.

Pi ha-Aryeh, an Italian-Hebrew dictionary of all difficult words in the Tanakh

Abraham de Sola (1825-1882) was a Canadian Rabbi, an orientalist and a scientist.

De Sola was recognized as one of the most influential leaders of Orthodox Judaism in America during the second half of the nineteenth century, at a time when the struggle between the Orthodox and Reform wings of the community was at an acute stage.

His father was rabbi David Aaron de Sola, and his mother the daughter of rabbi Raphael Meldola.

In 1847 de Sola arrived to Montreal, Canada and there he served as the rabbi of  She-erit Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese community.

Rabbi de Sola soon established himself at the centre of Montreal’s English-speaking intellectual community. An eloquent, popular, and prolific lecturer and a man of broad interests. He frequently addressed the Montreal Mercantile Library Association, the Montreal Literary Club, the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal (of which he was elected an honorary member), the Montreal Mechanics’ Institute, and the Natural History Society (which he served as president in 1867-68), as well as several organizations associated with McGill College.

In 1848, De Sola was appointed lecturer, and in 1853 professor, of Hebrew and Oriental literature at Mac Gill University in Montreal, and he eventually became the senior professor of its faculty of arts.

In 1873, by invitation of President Ulysses S. Grant De Sola opened the United States Congress with a prayer.

He wrote on the history of Jews in England, Persia, Poland, and France; reported on cosmography and Sinaitic inscriptions; examined botanical and zoological references in the Scriptures. De Sola also wrote medical studies, on the rabbinical dietary laws and the use of anesthetics, which appeared in major medical journals and were reprinted as pamphlets. His chief works include: Behemoth haTemeoth, a 16-page pamphlet published by John Lovell containing an annotated catalogue of the animals pronounced unclean by the book of Leviticus.

For a more detailed biography of this exceptional Rabbi and for an impressive list of his articles and publications see here.

Some of his writing:

• 1848. Scripture Zoology
• 1852. The Mosaic Cosmogony.
• 1852. The  Cosmography of Peritsol.
• 1852. A Commentary on Shemuel haNagid  Introduction to the Talmud .
• 1853. Behemoth Hatemeoth.
• 1854. The Jewish Calendar System (conjointly with Rev. J.J. Lyons).
• 1857. Philological Studies in  Hebrew and Aramaic .
• 1858. Scripture Botany.
• 1860. The Employment of Anæsthetics in Connection with Jewish Law.
• 1861. The Sanatory Institutions of the Hebrews.
• 1864. Biography of  David Aaron de Sola.
• 1869. Life of  Shabettai Tsevi.
• 1870. History of the Jews of Poland. 
• 1871. History of the Jews of France.
• 1874. Hebrew Numismatics.
• 1878. New Edition of the Forms of Prayer of the Spanish and Portuguese  Jews, with English translation, based on the versions of    David Aaron de Sola and Isaac Lesser.
• 1880. Life of Saadiah Gaon.

• Abraham de Sola also contributed actively to the Jewish press, a large number of articles by him appearing in “The Voice of Jacob,” “The Asmonean,” “The British-American Journal,” and other contemporary Jewish journals. His articles on william Sawson’s “Archaia,” “Dawn of Life,” and “Origin of the World” are specially noteworthy. He also edited and republished English’s “Grounds of Christianity ” and a number of educational works.

Raphael Meldola (1754-1828), was the son of Moses Hezekiah Meldola (1725-1791), professor of Oriental languages in Paris. Raphael was born in Leghorn (Livorno), Italy in 1754. He received a thorough university training, both in theological and in secular branches, and displayed such remarkable talents that when only fifteen years old he was permitted to take his seat in the rabbinical college and received his rabbinical ordination from the famous Chida (Rabbi Chayim Yosef David Azulai, z”l).

In 1804 he was appointed as Chakham of the Sephardi community in London. Rabbi Meldola possessed of a remarkably virile mind, he was a dominant factor in the British Jewry of his generation. His scholarship attracted around him a circle in which were many of the most distinguished men of his day, including Benjamin Disraeli (first Jewish-born British Primer Minister) and Isaac Disraeli and it is noteworthy that he opposed the policy which produced the famous rupture between the later and the mahamad (the lay leaders of the Spanish and Portuguese community in London). He maintained a literary correspondence with many of the most prominent Christian clergymen and scholars of his time; and his acquaintance with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Canon ofWindsor led to his being received by King George III. He wrote the book Chuppat Chatanim (1797), on the laws of marital life. He also published sermons and memorial poems. His book Derekh Emunah (The Way of Faith) appeared with his English translation after his death. His son David Meldola (1797-1853), succeeded him as presiding rabbi though not as Chakham of the Sephardi community in London.

In the following Rabbinical Responsa, rabbi Meldola criticizes all those who are not careful to read the Tora or the Tefila, without knowing and without applying the laws of Hebrew grammar (diqduq). In the Hebrew section of the Responsa, he also criticizes those who pretend that correct Hebrew reading pertain to the area of Minhagim, and therefore, don’t see the correct reading of the Tora as absolutely mandatory. It is a worth reading text for all those interested in Hebrew grammar and its application in Jewish Liturgy.

“it is incontrovertible evident that the Torah or Divine Law, which is read in every Synagogue in the world throughout tho year, as also our Forms of Prayers which we address to God must be read correctly and distinctly according to the principles of Grammar, vowel points, &c, as the Prophet Nehemiah expresses, chap. viii., v. 8,” So they read in the book in the law of God, distinctly, and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading.” Agreeably to the greatest Authorities, both, ancient; and modern,’as Talmud, Maimonides, Shulchanaruhk, or the Code of our holy Laws, &c. and ‘which has been strictly observed by all our fathers from the lime of our great Lawgiver to the present day….”

David Aaron de Sola (1796 – 1860) was a rabbi and author, born in Amsterdam. When but eleven years of age he entered as a student the bet-hamidrash of his native city, and after a course of nine years received his rabbinical diploma. In 1818 he was elected one of the ministers of the Bevis Marks Congregation, London. De Sola’s addresses before the Society for the Cultivation of Hebrew Literature led the mahamad (board of directors of the congregation) to appoint him to deliver discourses in the vernacular, and on March 26, 1831, he preached the first sermon in English ever heard within the walls of Bevis Marks Synagogue. His discourses were subsequently published by the mahamad. In 1829 he issued his first work, The Blessings, and in 1836 he published his Translation of the Forms of Prayer According to the Custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, in six volumes, of which a second edition was issued in 1852. This translation formed the basis for several subsequent ones.

In 1837 de Sola published The Proper Names in Scripture. In 1839, he translated eighteen treatises of the Mishna to English. In 1840 de Sola, conjointly with Raphall, began the publication of an English translation of the Scriptures together with a commentary. Only the first volume, Genesis, was published, in 1844.

Besides his works in English, de Sola wrote in Hebrew, German, and Dutch. He contributed frequently between 1836 and 1845 to the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums and to Der Orient, and published in German A Biography of Epharim Luzzato and a Biography of Distinguished Israelites in England. His chief work in Dutch was his Biography of Rabbi Isaac Shemuel Reggio published in 1855 and afterward translated into English.

You can get some books (reprints) of Rabbi David Aaron de Sola online. Check HERE.

Today is the 29 of Iyar, 5771/ 44 days of Omer, 5771

One of the first rabbinic luminaries to arrive to America in colonial times was Rabbi Raphael Chaim Yitzchak Karigal. Rabbi Karigal was born in 1732 in the ancient Sephardi kehillah of Hebron in Eretz Israel.

In 1772 Rabbi Karigal arrived to Newport, Rhode Island, a major Jewish community in the colonial era. The Newport kehillah – “Kahal Kadosh Yeshuat Yisrael” – had been founded in 1658, the second Jewish community to be established in North America. (New York had been the first, in 1654.) Like all colonial kehillot, it followed Sephardic practices in both minhag and organizational structure. The beautiful Touro Synagogue, which was constructed by the kehillah in the 1800’s, is still standing. It is a National Historical Site and the oldest synagogue extant in the United States. The outstanding beauty of its architectural lines is still impressive today.

In Newport, Rabbi Karigal was received with great honor, as the most outstanding talmid hakham to have visited the town until then. While in Newport, Rabbi Karigal came into contact with one of the leading non-Jewish intellectuals of colonial life, Rev. Ezra Stiles. Stiles was president of Yale College (click HERE to read “How Hebrew came to Yale”) and a famous Protestant minister. He was very impressed with the demeanor and bearing of Rabbi Karigal and left detailed descriptions of Rabbi Karigal and his actions in his letters and diary. The character and learning of a true talmid chacham were so unusual in eighteenth century America that Stiles became one of Rabbi Karigal’s greatest admirers. He asked him many questions concerning the Jewish religion and the Hebrew language and carefully recorded the answers he received.

Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas was born in New York on January 15, 1745. He was the son of Isaac Mendes Seixas and Rachel Levy, both descendants of Sephardic families who emigrated from Portugal and Spain to the New World, settling in the small but influential Jewish community of New York.

His father, Isaac, was a merchant and one of the founders of Shearith Israel, the oldest synagogue in North America.

From a young age, Gershom dedicated himself to the study of Torah. At that time, there were no yeshivot or rabbinical centers in America, but he studied Torah, Tanakh, and Jewish tradition with local teachers and books brought from Europe. Although he lacked formal rabbinic studies, due to his knowledge, fluency in Hebrew, and leadership, he was appointed as hazzan (cantor), preacher, and religious guide at Shearith Israel—a role that in Sephardic communities was equivalent to that of Hakham or Rabbi .

Education and Religious Leadership

He was fluent in English and Hebrew and had knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese, reflecting his Sephardic heritage. In 1768, at just 23 years old, he was appointed hazzan and religious leader of Shearith Israel. During the War of Independence, his leadership was put to the test. The Jewish community was divided between loyalists to the British Crown and patriots. Gershom firmly supported independence. When British troops occupied New York in 1776, he left the city along with other patriots, relocating to Philadelphia.

Patriotism and Service in Philadelphia

In 1780, he left Stratford and settled in Philadelphia, the revolutionary capital. There he was appointed hazzan and rabbi of Mikveh Israel, the second oldest congregation in the United States. During the critical years of the war, he officiated, preached, and kept Jewish religious life alive in the community. When the war ended and New Yorkers began to return, Mikveh Israel did not want to let him go, but Seixas returned to New York, where he would reside for the rest of his life.

Family and Personal Life

He had two children with his first wife, Elkaleh Cohen. After her passing, he married Hannah Manuel, with whom he had ten children. His descendants continued to be influential in American Jewish life, maintaining the Seixas surname as a symbol of Sephardic pride.

His brothers were also prominent figures in Jewish communal and American civic life:

• Isaac Mendes Seixas was an officer in the New Jersey militia during the American Revolution and fought in George Washington’s army. He died in 1780.
• Moses Mendes Seixas was a successful merchant and president of the Jewish community in Newport, Rhode Island. He received George Washington and wrote a very famous letter to the first American president.
• Benjamin Mendes Seixas was a successful merchant and a founder of the New York Stock Exchange.

Community and Civic Roles

His duties as hazzan were not limited to leading prayers. He was also responsible for education, circumcision, kosher ritual slaughter (shechita), and was the main religious and community authority of New York’s Jews, a small and united community.

Seixas also represented Jews to broader society. Between 1784 and 1815, he served as a Regent of Columbia College alongside figures such as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, being the first Jew to hold such a position at an American university. He held this post for over three decades, reflecting the integration of Jews into American civic life.

Sermons and Teachings

A distinctive feature of his service at Shearith Israel was his custom of delivering sermons in English, something that reflected his new role as a comprehensive spiritual guide and would be vital for his influence in his American homeland.

Members of the congregation transcribed and preserved his sermons.

Among them stand out:

• His prayer for Thanksgiving Day in 1789, where he spoke of the duty of Jews to thank God for living in a country of freedom.
• His Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur messages, emphasizing moral responsibility and the importance of mitzvot as a guarantee of Jewish continuity.

He died on July 2, 1816, in New York at the age of 71, and was buried in the old Shearith Israel cemetery. Today, he is remembered as the first American Jewish leader to openly support independence—a patriot who trusted that the United States would be a place where Jews could practice their religion with freedom and dignity.

As historians note, “Seixas was to American Judaism what George Washington was to the United States: a founding father.” His life and legacy symbolize the integration of Jews into America without ever renouncing their faith and traditions.

At George Washington’s inauguration, he offered the following prayer, reflecting both his patriotism and faith

April 30, 1789 | Congregation Shearith Israel, New York

 

“Our God and God of our fathers: We implore You to pour out Your blessings upon the President of the United States and upon all those in authority under him. May they be strengthened with Your power to fulfill the duties of their respective offices with honesty and integrity. May they be guided by wisdom, advised by understanding, and sustained by Your strength.

May this government be a blessing to all the inhabitants of this land; may it promote the honor of Your holy Name and knowledge of You and Your law, so that justice and peace prevail, truth flourish in the days of our lives, and we may be allowed to see the coming of the Redeemer in peace. Amen.”