Rabbi Moshe Almosnino (Greece 1515-1580)

Rabbi Almosnino was born in Salonica in 1515. Rabbi Almosnino belonged to a prominent Sephardic family, which fled Aragon after two of his ancestors died on the stake, condemned by the Inquisition. Rabbi Moshe Almosnino was the rabbi of the main Spanish Sephardic community “Neve Shalom”. 

Rabbi Almosnino was a prolific author, and the earliest known writer in Ladino. 

  

He was also a very prominent community leader. In 1565 he represented the Jewish communities at an audience with the sultan Selim II, petitioning the confirmation of the civil rights of the Jews who lived in the Ottoman Empire.   

Anticipating by a few centuries the idea of Tora uMada (the compatibility between Tora and sciences), Rabbi Almosnino, who had great interest in  all scientific fields and particularly in astronomy, wrote commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics and on John Sacrobosco’s Sphaera Mundi. He translated and commented George von Peuerbach’s Teoriae Novae Planetarum, composed an exposition of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and a commentary on al-Ghazali’s work.

Rabbi Moshe Almosnino is the author of many important Jewish books as well.

For example:    

“Yede moshe” , a commentary on the five megillot: Shir haShrim, Ruth, Ekha (Lamentations) Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) and Esther.

“Pirqe Moshe”  an exposition of the treatise Pirqe Abot  Chapters of the fathers (Salonica 1563). 

“Tefila leMoshe” a book on the praises and wonders of the Tora. Based on the Psalms.

He also wrote in Spanish and in Ladino (Spanish with Hebrew letters)

“Regimiento de la Vida” (The rules of life), written in Spanish. He dedicated tis work to his son Shim’on (Salonica 1564). It is a guide to the moral conduct meant for educated young men not fluent in Hebrew.  It deals, among other things, with the nature of good and evil, Divine providence vis-a-vis free will, the importance of education, etc. To this book was appended a chapter called: “El Tratado de los suenyos” (A treatise on Dreams).

“Extremos y Grandezas de Constantinopla”, originally written in ladino was transliterated and republished by Jacob Cansino in Madrid, 1638. In this extraordinary book he describes the life in Constantinople. Its weather, its inhabitants, the life in the city, etc.   It is the earliest known book written in Ladino and it is priceless for historians.

Rabbi Almosnino’s most famous book, Yede Moshe (600 pages long), is a commentary to the five Meguilot, among them Meguilat Esther.

Rabbi Almosnino’s expertise was “language” and beyond his mastery of Hebrew grammar he was extremely sharp and sensitive for textual analysis of the Peshat (the text’s plain literary meaning).  As it was the way of Sephardic rabbis, he analyzes the Peshat independently from the Midrashim.

We will see now one example from his commentary to the book of Esther. Rabbi Almosnino asks himself, and the reader, why do we need the seemingly superfluous first chapter of the Meguila. What can be learned from it, vis-a-vis the main plot of the story,  Haman’s plan to exterminate the Jewish people?

Rabbi Almosnino shows that when we examine closely the first chapter of the book of Esther, we get a better idea of the magnitude of the miracle of Purim.

A few examples:

The story of Esther begins in verse 1:1, telling us that Ahashverosh reigned over 127 cities of the Persian Empire. Why would the Megilla need to tell us these seemingly irrelevant details? Because we should understand that the decree of Haman to kill the Jews of Persia, would have implied the end of the Jewish nation.  The Persian Empire, at the time of Ahashverosh, was so large that there were no Jews living outside these 127 cities. This shows us the magnitude of the miracle: 1. There was no escape for the Jews, and later on . 2. the entire Jewish nation was saved from Haman’s decree.

In the following lines, pasuq 1:3, Rabbi Almosnino draws an outstanding psychological profile of Ahashverosh. Unlike a psychologist who examines his patient’s profile from a therapy session, Rabbi Almosnino delved into Ahashverosh personality from a profound “psychoanalysis ” of  the text.

bishnat shalosh lemolkho: The Meguila describes Ahashverosh as an inexperienced, naive King.  What defines a King’s lack of experience? A King is surrounded by advisers. The advisers very often would give the King an advice that favors them personally, rather than the King or the Kingdom. But they would always disguise their advice as if they are favoring the King or the Kingdom. An experienced King is able to detect these tricks. An inexperienced King would be tricked by his advisers’ maneuvers. The book of Esther is presenting us with this fact, Ahashverosh third year in power,  to anticipate that the King is inexperienced. Later on in the Meguila, we will see all kind of maneuvers coming from Haman, which Ahashverosh was unable to detect. When Haman presented the King with his plan to kill the Jews, his way to achieve a personal vendetta for a private affront, Haman describes the plan not as related to his private interest, but to the King’s interest.”These people do not follow your rules… It is not in the interest of the King to let this people live”. The inexperienced King took the bait.

‘asa mishte lekhol sarav va’abadav. “The King threw a party to all his servants”, ergo, says rabbi Almosnino, this King is “a people pleaser”. Normally, the people would honor the King, throwing a party in his honor. But Ahashverosh was insecure of his people’s loyalty and of their love for him. He must have had the emotional need to be loved and praised, in order to feel good with himself. Therefore, his decisions will be made having in mind not the benefit of the Kingdom, but his own image. As a people pleaser he would do and execute whatever would reflect positively in his image and vice-versa.  This is why the King will eventually accepts Haman’s evil request: to please his favorite adviser. On the other hand, Haman, very cleverly, does not reveal the name of the people he wants to exterminate. Haman never mentions to Ahashverosh: “I want to kill the Jews”. He advises the King to get rid of “a” people , anonymous, unnamed. In a way that no one Ahashverosh knows would be displeased.

behar-oto et ‘osher kebod malkhuto ve-et yeqar…: “Ahashverosh threw the big party to show-off his wealth and the magnificence of his splendorous  Kingship.” Rabbi Almosnino explains that there are two major drives for powerful people: money and image/vanity (ga’ava). For some people, money is number 1 priority. And these people would sacrifice their image and honor in order to gain more money. But for other people, image/honor  is above money. These people would spend all their money to boost their image. Ahashverosh, Rabbi Almosnino says, belongs to the second group. He spent a fortune in his party just to advance his image and self-pride in the eyes of all his subjects. Rabbi Almosnino explains that vanity was the consequence of Ahashverosh’s insecurity and low self esteem. And knowing this will help us understand that because of his arrogance and insecure character, he would probably not consider backing down from his decisions.

And why is it important for the reader of the Meguilla to know this about Ahashverosh? Because later on in the Meguila, once the decree is made and signed by the King, the reader might think that if the Jews collect enough money, they will be able to buy the King’s favor and make him cancel his decree. But once we know that for this King money is below image/honor, and that backing down from his decision would have been psychologically impossible for a person with a low self esteem, you would think that there is no way to make this decree disappear! (My son Ya’aqob explains that, projecting his own personality, when Ahashverosh wishes to reward Mordekhay for his services to the crown, he does not think of a monetary reward for Mordekhay but of an honorific reward that would enhance “Mordekhay’s image”. This is why Ahashverosh accepts Haman’s suggestion to lead Mordekhay on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man the king wishes to honor!”). Having all this in mind, when you read the Meguila for the first time and you see that Ahashverosh is insobornable, proud and stubborn, you say to yourself: “this decree cannot be undo”, thus, you get to better appreciate the magnitude of the miracle of Purim.
Read Rabbi Almosnino’s Books
You can find the Hebrew books of Rabbi Moshe Almosnino in  www.hebrewbooks. org
For “Regimiento de la vida” (ancient Spanish) click  here .
For “Extremos y grandezas de Constantinopla” (Spanish) click  here.

 



Rabbi Israel Moshe Hazan (1808-1863)

 

Rabbi Israel Moshe Hazan was born in Smyrne, Turkey. His parents emigrated to Jerusalem when he was three years old.  There, he studied in the Yeshiba of his grandfather the famous  Rabbi Yosef Hazan, author of hiqre leb.  
In 1842 Rabbi Hazan was appointed a member of the bet din in Jerusalem. In 1844 he traveled to London and Amsterdam. He published then a small book called qinat zion (1846) against the recently established Reform movement.  In those years the Reform movement had convened in Frankfort and Brunswick deciding among other things to abolish ritual dietary Laws (kashrut), circumcision, the observance of Shabbat (S. Holdheim conducted Shabbat services on Sunday)and declaring that they do not recognize anymore the Talmud and rabbinical tradition as authoritative.   In his short book Rabbi Hazan  explained the basics of normative Judaism and defended the principles of rabbinical tradition and their authority. 
  
Rabbi Hazan went later to Rome where he was appointed as the rabbi of that Italian community. He tried to intercede on behalf of the Jews of Italy in the court of Pope Pius IX, in the times of the infamous Mortara case (a Jewish child kidnapped by the Church who was adopted and raised by the Pope himself.  See this.) 
  
Rabbi Hazan also wrote an important book on the Halakhic laws of inheritance, which include several diagrams. The book is called Nahala leIsrael and it is based on the examination of a 
complex case of inheritance involving an Italian Jewish family.   
He also authored the book qedushat yom tob , against the attempt in Italy to abolish the second day of the festivals. And Iyyei haYam, an important commentary on the responsa of the Geonim.
His most famous book is perhaps kerakh shel romi, a collection of his responsa dealing with the application of Jewish Law on various subjects, particularly the new challenges of modern life.  
In 1862 Rabbi Hazzan settled in Haifa, but died in Beirut, Lebanon.  His remains were taken for burial to Sidon since this city is regarded as being within the Halakhic borders of Eretz Israel. 
 
                            
 Click here to download and read Rabbi Israel Moshe Hazan’s  qin-at Zion. 
 


Rabbi Ben-Zion Abraham Cuenca (1867-1937)

Rabbi Ben-Zion Cuenca was born in the old city of Jerusalem in 1867.  His last name, Cuenca, corresponds to a city in Spain. His family was among the “Expulsadaos de Castilla”, the Jewish families expelled from Castilla and Aragon in 1492. The Cuenca family settled in Salonika (Greece) and lived there for centuries. Rabbi Cuenca’s father, Abraham Cuenca, made aliya to Eretz Israel around 1850. 

Before the age of ten, rabbi Cuenca was regarded as an ‘iluy (a child prodigy) by the Rabbis of Jerusalem.  Knowing this, his father devoted all his resources to hire for him the best Rabbis and mentors. He also provided for rabbi Cuenca with a vast secular education, especially in the fields of History and languages.

At the age of 30 Rabbi Cuenca established a Yeshiba “Tiferet Yerushalaim”. In this Yeshiba, which also included general studies, were educated among others the Chief rabbi of Israel  Ben-Zion Meir Hay Uziel (see this ), the famous Sephardic Hebrew writer Yehuda Burla, and rabbi Moshe Nissim, the father of Chief rabbi of Israel Isaac Nissim  (see here)

One of the most important contributions of Rabbi Cuenca was the creation of the Halakhic Journal  “hame-asef”.   Hame-asef is a collection of Halakhic studies done by hundreds of Rabbis: Sephardim, Ashkenazim, from Israel and from the Diaspora. Bringing together so many rabbis from all different backgrounds was at that time by itself a virtual a dramatic positive innovation. Rabbi Cuenca operated singlehandedly all the stages of this publication for 19 years. The first journal appeared in 1897. Rabbi Cuenca was of course one of the main contributors. He was particularly interested in reexamining the Laws of Eretz Israel (terumot, ma’aserot, shemita, etc)  a subject that remained virtually dormant for centuries. Now, as the Yeshub of Eretz Israel was growing, these Laws needed to be reviewed, especially in light of modernity and its new challenges. In rabbi Cuenca’s own words  אחד מעיקרי מטרתנו יהיה לישא וליתן בהלכה בכל העניינים והדינים אשר ביישוב הארץ יסודן, בכל דיני קדושת הארץ בזמננו. 

In the hame-asef rabbi Cuenca introduced a short biography of the writers, which given the tremendous lack of information especially about Sephardic rabbis of the 19th century, constitutes an invaluable contribution to modern Jewish History.
Thanks to Hebrewbooks.org you can read the first volume of the המאסף here .

 



Don Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508)

As we saw last week (see this) Rabbi “Don” Isaac Abarbanel was a famous statesman, a wealthy merchant, a Jewish philanthropist and one of the most illustrious biblical commentators and philosophers.
Despite his turbulent life Rabbi Abarbanel was a very prolific Rabbinic author.  In his youth, while in Portugal,  he wrote his first book: ‘ateret zeqenim , “the crown of the elders” where he explained some difficult Biblical passages in Exodus chapter 33.  He also wrote at a very young age “The way of the Principles” (surat haysodot) where he discussed philosophical issues like God’s individual supervision, the immortality of the soul, etc. The issues of faith and dogma were extremely important for Rabbi Abarbanel in light of the permanent pressure exerted upon the Jews of Spain and Portugal by the catholic Church in its pursuing to convert them.  Rabbi Abarbanel had to stop his literary enterprise when he was called to serve as the Finance Minister of King Alfonso 5th.  
He wrote his commentary on the Bible in Spain while he was working as the Administrator of Tax Revenues for the Kings of Spain. He began with Joshua, Judges and Shemuel.
Once in italy and now virtually retired from serving in the court he wrote his most famous and most extensive work, a commentary on the Five Books of the Tora.  He developed a very interesting exegetic style: first, rabbi Abarbanel asks 10-15 profound questions on every Biblical paragraph and then, he explains this paragraph answering systematically every question he brought.
Another important book he wrote is ma’ayane hayeshu’a, “The springs of salvation” where he explains thoroughly  the Jewish belief in the coming of the Messiah and compares it with the Christian belief in a Messiah. This book is written as a commentary of the Biblical book of Daniel. He wrote many other books on the Jewish concept of the Messiah, which was obviously one of the main points of controversy with the Church.   
“Rosh Amana”, was one of the last books he wrote. This book is a commentary on the 13 principles of Jewish faith formulated by Maimonides. 

All his books can be found in

  
One of the best books one can find about the incredible life and  ideas of rabbi “Don” Isaac Abarbanel is the book written by Professor Benzion Netanyahu z”l, the father of Israel’s Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu. Professor Netanyahu was an expert in the history of Sephardic Jews.
The book is called:   

 



Rabbi Don Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508)

Rabbi “Don” Isaac Abarbanel (or Abravanel) was born in Lisbon Portugal, in 1437. He was a famous statesman, a very wealthy merchant, a Jewish philanthropist  and one of the most illustrious biblical commentators and philosophers. 
Abarbanel spent 45 years in Portugal where he loyally served the King of Portugal Alfonso V in all financial matters of the Kingdom. 
In 1481 upon the death of the King the new monarch Joao II falsely accused Abarbanel of conspiracy. Abarbanel was able to flee secretly to Spain and all his fortune was confiscated by the new Portuguese King.
In 1483 he established himself in Toledo, Spain. His vast experience in royal matters and state finance was well known in Spain and in a short time his services were requested by the Kings of Castilla. He was in charge of administrating the farm revenues of the Kingdom and to supply provisions for the campaign of the Kings Ferdinand and Isabella against Granada, Islam’s last Iberian citadel.  Rabbi Abarbanel became again very wealthy and during the war, he advanced considerable sums of his own money to the Kings to support his army .
In 1491 when he learned about the plan to expel the Jews from Spain, Abarbanel made a  offer to the Queen: 30,000 ducats (more than 60,000 dollars “nominal value” in that time) to revoke the edict of expulsion. His offer was rejected, but he was given the choice to keep all his privileges as a statesman and his personal wealth if he converted to Christianity. He refused, and in 1492 he left Spain empty handed with his heartbroken and impoverished Jewish brothers.
In 1493 he resettled in Naples, Italy, where he served in the court of Alfonso ll. In 1495 Naples was taken by the French. And Rabbi Abarbanel, bereft of all possessions, followed the young king Alfonso to Messina. From there they resettled in Corfu (today, an island in Greece) and lastly in 1503 he settled in Venice, where his services were employed in negotiating the commercial treaties between Portugal and the Venetian republic in the spices market.
He died in Venice in 1508 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Padua.
Despite his intense, agitated life and multiple exiles Rabbi Abarbanel was a very prolific writer, as we are going to see, BH next week.
Today, 13 of Sivan,
the Jewish Syrian community celebrates nes moossan, the day in which a potential blood libel against the community of Aleppo was miraculously  averted.  As far as I was able to search there is virtually nothing online about it.  I invite the readers of HOTD to share any information about this event to have an online source and ideally, an entry in Wikipedia. 
Please, send the information to: rabbibitton@yahoo.com  

 



Rabbi Eliyahu Hazan: The first Sephardic Bat-Mitzva

After being in Tripoli for a few years (see this), rabbi Eliyahu Hazan was invited to serve the Jewish community of Alexandria, Egypt, replacing rabbi Moshe Pardo, who passed away in 1888.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Alexandria was a cosmopolitan city, with a strong European influence.  The Jewish community was at the vanguard of the socio-economic progress. Those were times of reform and secularization. Jewish education was not popular at all. Many parents were sending their children to the “prestigious”  Christian (some of them missionary!) schools of the city.  As they struggled to find the delicate balance between Jewish education and the increasing demands of the parents for dedicating more time to secular studies (including: art, tennis and dance) the few Jewish schools of Alexandria did not achieve the desired goals in terms of basic Jewish scholarship, particularly with the Jewish girls.   The schools (or the parents) would provide special tutoring in preparation for the boy’s Bar Mitzva. The girls, however, were largely ignorant of Judaism and “could not utter a single word in Hebrew”.
Attentive to this issue Rabbi Eliyahu Hazan introduced a new ceremony, not practiced until then among Sephardic Jews: The communal celebration of the Bat Mitzva. Unlike the boys’ Bar Mitzva, which was centered on the reading of a portion of the Tora from the pulpit, the girls’ new ceremony consisted in the recitation of some prayers and answering questions dealing with the basic principles of Judaism.
For Rabbi Hazan the Bat Mitzva ceremony served a higher purpose: it allowed Rabbi Hazan to develop an innovative educational curriculum. The new program of Religious studies for girls was a prerequisite for participating in the Bat Mitzva ceremony. Now the girls and their parents, eager to participate of the popular celebration,  were provided with a great stimulus to read fluently Hebrew; to learn the basic prayers, and to master the foundations of Judaism.
Rabbi Hazan served the Jewish community of Alexandria for 20 years, until his sudden death in 1908.
He was succeeded by Rabbi Raffaello Della Pergola (from 1910 to 1923) and Rabbi David Prato (from 1927 to 1936). Both from Italy.


Rabbi Eliyahu Hazan (1846-1908) and the Role of Secular Studies

Rabbi Eliyahu Bekhor Hazan
Rabbi Eliyahu Hazan  (1846-1908) , son of Yosef Rafael Hazan, was born in Izmir, Turkey . His grandfather was Rabbi Hayim David Hazan, the author of nedib leb and the Chief Rabbi of Israel (Hakham Bashi and Rishon LeZion) in 1861. In 1856, when he was 10 years old and with the blessing of his parents, he was taken by his grandfather to Yerushalayim. There, he studied day and night for many years. At a very young age he was part of the Bet Din (rabbinical court) of Rabbi Abraham Ashkenazi. In 1866 his grandfather granted him his Rabbinical ordination.
In 1872 when visiting Tripoli (Libya), he was offered to serve as the Chief Rabbi of Libya, a very important and numerous Jewish community on those days.
The first task he took upon himself was to make some improvements in the area of education. In his most famous book,ta’alumot leb Rabbi Hazan describes the situation of the Libyan community in this area: “And I saw that the cause of their insufficient education in Tora and general studies (derekh ereṣ) is the lack of a proper Talmud Tora (a Jewish school), because the children attend some informal classes in the Synagogues… where there is only one teacher for 60 or 70 students at a time… and those parents who want to give a better education to their children are forced to send their children away to Europe or to the [private] Catholic schools in the area”
Despite some opposition, Rabbi Hazan founded a Jewish day school in Tripoli, in which Jewish children were given instruction in religious topics, as well as in other subjects, like mathematics and the Italian language, which was the most essential tool to guarantee that the students will have a melakha (profession or commerce). He also required that all school instructors would be certified teachers.
(To be continued…)
געגועי ירושלים
Upon leaving Yerushalayim to establish himself in Libya he writes: “My family and I left with a broken spirit the Holy city, the city of my ancestors’ graves… “. In honor of Yerushalayim Rabbi Hazan wrote this beautiful poem “ochil yom“, where he expressed his deep longing for the Holiest city.  This piyut is very popular among Jews from North Africa.

 



Rabbi Refael Aharon ben Shimon: Sephardim and Ashkenazim

Cairo was also home to an Ashkenazi community, which was founded in the aftermath of the progroms that hit Europe in the latter part of the 19th century.  The Ashkenazi community had its own Synagogue where they would hold services according to their customs and traditions.  Still the basic community services (cemetery, sheḥita, education) were provided by the  Sephardic community for both. In 1893 the lay leaders of the Ashkenazi community decided to have their own services. Rabbi ben Shimon (1847-1928) did not refuse and the Sephardic community gave the Ashkenazi community a parcel in the cemetery for free.  They also appointed their own Rabbi, Rabbi Rafael Ginzburg, who passed away three years after his appointment. At the end of the 19th century he was succeeded by Rabbi Aharon Mendel haCohen, a great rabbinical scholar from Tiberia. Rabbi ben Shimon and rabbi Mendel worked together for the benefit of the Jewish community. Rabbi Ben Shimon brought Rabbi Mendel as part of his Bet Din (rabbinical court). Even though Rabbi Ben Shimon in his position as the Chief rabbi of Egypt, appointed in 1893 by the Turkish Sultan, was technically the single authority of the entire Jewish community, before he issued a new rule, he would consult with rabbi Mendel and seek his approval.  The relationship and camaraderie between the two Rabbis was known as an example of team-work and mutual respect between a Sephardic and an Ashkenazi rabbi.
Even when they would disagree on certain issues, they would still respect each other greatly. In 1903, rabbi Mendel together with rabbi Zvi Makowsky (va-ashiba shofetaikh) planned to reestablish the Sanhedrin (ḥiddush hasemikha), i.e., a universal Rabbinical Supreme Court that, among other things, would (i) resolve all the disagreements between Rabbis and arrive at one final Halakhic decision, mandatory for all (ii) appoint community rabbis who will act on behalf of this Sanhedrin. Rabbi Ben Shimon was very enthusiastic about the idea in general, but he was skeptic about its realization.  In a  beautiful letter addressed to rabbi Mendel (which could be found in nehar miṣrayim B, pp. 583-587) he tried to dissuade him. Rabbi ben Shimon’s opposition to this idea was based purely on pragmatic grounds: In present times –he said– with so many divisions among the Jews, it will be impossible to persuade all the Rabbinical and lay leaders to surrender their local authority and empower one single entity above them.   Unfortunately, Rabbi ben Shimon was right and the project never came to fruition.
 Read more  HERE about past and present attempts to renew the Sanhedrin

 



Refael Aharon ben Shimon response on suicide

As we saw last week, Rabbi Refael Aharon ben Shimon (1847-1928) is a good example of a rabbi that confronted the challenges of modernity.
We described how and why he, for instance, forbade the celebrations of private weddings (see here) and issued a decree making mandatory to celebrate weddings only in a Synagogue.
Today, I would like to address a completely different and very delicate issue, which Rabbi ben Shimon had to deal with too. As he himself writes (see nehar misrayim 2, page 584) in Cairo (Egypt) suicide became epidemic in his time (ca.1910-1920). “We see with a broken heart… how young people take their own lives because of small problems, illusory matters of honor or frustrated romantic expectations.. and I saw that this terrible outbreak came from European influence [=Western culture] because there they do not believe in an afterlife, and have nor fear of [=belief in] God, so when they are confronted with any crisis –instead of accepting it as a Divine decree– in a brief moment of impulsivity, they would take their own lives…”.
Rabbi ben Shimon spoke publicly several times about these issues, encouraging the people to believe that going through difficult times is part of what makes us grow, and that we should see these challenges as God-sent opportunities to elevate ourselves emotionally and spiritually.
Besides his teachings, rabbi ben Shimon also made the following ruling: When someone commits suicide (has veshalom) the honors due in normal circumstances to someone that passes away are suspended. The body is buried outside the common area of the graves, etc. But in order to alleviate the families the rabbis usually consider that the person who committed suicide was not completely mindful of his actions, and/or in the last seconds, he might have repented from his intention. Thus, his death is not categorized as suicide and honors would be given to his body.
Rabbi ben Shimon cancelled this leniency. He saw that the last resource to stop the potential suicide might be knowing the pain and shame that will be inflicted to his family, since his body will not even be buried in a normal grave, etc.
As Rabbi ben Shimon  himself testified, this preventive ruling was effective and the rates of suicide in Cairo diminished dramatically.

 



Rabbi Refael Aharon ben Shimon (1847-1928)

As we said last week (see here) Rabbi Ben Shimon wrote many responsas about the new inventions of his time. As the highest authority in his community he had to pronounce a ruling on those issues.
In a rare and exquisite passage in one of his responsa (oraḥ ḥayim , 8, p.23) of his book umiṣur debash, he was asked about the usage of matches (a new popular invention in those days) in Yom Tob. Before he build the case against or in favor of using matches in Yom Tob, he writes the following [my own, free translation]:
“What a difficult task is for a Rabbi today to answer this kind of questions. New inventions in all areas of life are so many in our generation… Human knowledge has increased through the investigation and the new discoveries of the principles of Creation, and with it, man’s industrial and technical capabilities. Every day there are innovations which were inconceivable for our ancestors or even for our own elders. It is a very difficult task for a Rabbi to find the proper answers to questions about these new technological inventions. To determine, for example, if they could be used on Shabbat or Yom Tob.  Because it is very laborious to compare these new inventions with the elements mentioned in our holy Talmud [1500 years ago], which is the guide of our lives and the source for establishing what is permitted and what is forbidden. Only through a great patient effort, and with a clear and calm mind, and with enough available time–free from all other troubles–it will be viable to analyze these innovations and compare the classic principles with the new discoveries. Searching with candles every comparable detail which could be found in the Talmud –which is like a deep ocean– to arrive, perhaps, to a practical conclusion and final ruling. And in addition to all this, once a conclusion is reached, one has to have a special merit to be spared from the critics, those whose expertise is to condemn, because they were trained to criticize arguments, and not to build them… “
 
 
 
AN EXCEPTIONAL MOMENT OF TRUTH 
AT THE U.N. DISCUSSING ISRAEL .
(Do not expect to see  THIS VIDEO in mainstream media…)