Rabbi David Pardo, (1718-1790) was a famous Sephardic Rabbi, a prolific author and a poet. He was born in Venice, Italy. At a young age he went to Sarajevo where he studied under Rabbi Abraham David Papo. Eventually R. Pardo was appointed rabbi of Sarajevo. In 1776 he traveled to Eretz Israel, settling in Jerusalem, where he served as head of the Yeshiba Chesed leAbraham uBinyan Shelomo. Rabbi Pardo was regarded in his time as Jerusalem’s greatest Rabbi.

Many of his works deal mainly with Tannaitic Rabbinic literature, and are an original commentary–not necessarily dependent on the Amoraitic interpretations.

His first famous work was Shoshannim le-David , an independent commentary on the Mishna.

He also wrote Chasde David a commentary on the Tosefta, which is considered one of the most important commentary on the Tosefta.

And Sifre deBeRab  which he commenced in 1786 and was published by his son Abraham after his death. This work is considered the most important commentary on the Sifre.

He also wrote Mikhtam le-David a book where he records his numerous halakhic decisions and responsa.

Maskil le-David a commentary on Rashi’s Biblical commentary.

LaMnatzeach leDavid, a book on those Talmudic passages where alternative explanations are given.

Mizmor le-David notes on the Perot Ginnosar of Rabbi Chizekiyah da Silva.

Rabbi Pardo’s liturgical poems and prayers are included in the Sephardic daily and festival prayer books.

He died in Yerushalaim.

Of his sons, R. Jacob Pardo became chief Rabbi of Ragusa.  A second son, Isaac, was the Rabbi of Sarajevo, while a third, Abraham, who married Lebana, the daughter of Rabbi Chayim Yosef David Azulai (Chida), became head of the Yeshiba Chesed leAbraham uBinyan Shelomo after his father-in-law’s death.

Rabbi Pardo’s disciples included Shabbetai ben Abraham Ventura, Rabbi David Pinto, and Rabbi Abraham Penso.

Rabbi Reggio studied Tora under his father, and secular studies in the local gymnasium. At the age of fourteen the prodigious student had such mastery of the Hebrew language that he wrote a metrical poem on the death of Rabbi Moshe Chefetz z”l (the author of “Melekhet Machashebet”).

Rabbi Reggio also learned French, German, Latin, Semitic Languages and excelled in Mathematics.  Rabbi Reggio was appointed by the emperor as professor of belles-lettres, geography, and history, and chancellor of the lycée of Gorizia.

Because of the influence of the European illuminism (haskala) an imperial decree was issued in 1822 that no community might appoint a Rabbi who had not graduated in philosophy. As a reaction, Rabbi Reggio published at Venice an appeal in Italian for the establishment of a Rabbinical Seminary, arguing that just as the Emperor did not desire Rabbis devoid of philosophical training, neither did the Jews desire Rabbis who had had no appropriate rabbinical education.

This appeal resulted in the establishment of the famous Rabbinical College in Padua, for which Rabbi Reggio, its founder, drew up the statutes and the educational program.

Among other books he published:

Click here to download and read “Torat Elokim” (original edition, from Hebrewbooks.org)

Click here to download and read “HaTora vehaPilosophia” (original edition, from Hebrewbooks.org)

Rabbi Benedetto Frizzi (1756-1844) or Benzion Rafael haKohen Frizzi was a Rabbi and a prominent scientists and physician in Italy.

Due to his brilliant mind he was encouraged by his parents to  study Tora, Talmud and Hebrew Grammar at the school of rabbinic studies in Fiorenzuola. He completed his rabbinical training at Mantua, where he moved in 1769, at the rabbinical academy established by Rabbi Jacob Saraval. In Mantua he also completed his academic studies in Philosophy, Latin and Mathematics. Previously, he had studied engineering and he was qualified as an expert land surveyor at the age of 16. He also had a passion for the medical sciences. He enrolled at the faculty of Medicine at the University of Pavia and graduated in 1787.  In  1789, he accepted the invitation of the imperial government and moved to Trieste where he practiced medicine.  In 1816, in this city he founded a Jewish hospital where indigent patients were attended for free.

He wrote several books in Italian showing to Jews and gentiles the code of public health of the Pentateuch (= Tora).  For example: “Dissertation on medical policies in the Pentateuch in regard to cleaning of streets and houses, and priestly laws of agriculture” (Cremona 1790).   The precepts given in the Torah,  rabbi Frizzi said are a “True Health Code” applied to the spiritual and moral elevation of man.

One of his most important books was “petach ‘enayim” a scientific explanation of the Talmud’s  hagadot and halakhot, in seven volumes.  In this book, written in Hebrew, Rabbi Frizzi shows the vast and advance knowledge of our Rabbis. One thing I remember from his book is how he identifies the maziqin, which the Rabbis of the Talmud portrayed as “invisible damaging creatures”, with the newly discovered “bacterias”.

PETACH ‘ENAYIM

This unfortunately unknown book is accesible to all of us now, BH, thanks to Hebrewbooks.org

Click here to read or download the book.

His book was described as:

“Philosophical, mathematical and physical analysis of those subjects contained in the Talmud collected in a special book called Israelitici populi Oculus“.

Rabbi Frizzi’s credentials were presented in the 1880 edition.

Previously we explained (see here) that Rabbi Yehuda Bibas served as the chief rabbi of the island of Corfu (today’s Greece) from the year 1831 to 1850. The influence of rabbi Bibas, however, was not restricted just to his own communjty. During those years he traveled to numerous Jewish communities in Europe and North Africa with a clear message: We, Jews, must come back to Zion.

But why now?

Rabbi Bibas saw a rare window of opportunity for the Jewish people in the fact that many countries in those days revolted against the ruling empires and achieved their independence. Living in Corfu, gave him the privileged perspective of being a direct witness of the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1832, and the ensuing Greek victory which lead to their independence.  Israel, called Palestine in those days, was also under the ruling of the Ottoman Empire. Rabbi Bibas estimated that the Jews were capable then to obtain their own independence, since the Ottoman Empire was weaker and in a process an inevitable decline. According to rabbi Yehuda Bibas:“The jews must conquer militarily the land of Israel from the Turks in the same way the Greeks conquered their own land from the Turks.” 

As we explained last week, Rabbi Bibas argued that the concept of teshuba needed to be understood then also as a call for returning to Israel. If you analyze carefully the book of Debarim Chapter 30:1-11 you will find that teshuba, mentioned there eight times, appears as the idea of national reconciliation with HaShem. Same as exile in the previous persahiot was the outcome of national abandonment of HaShem, coming back to Israel is seen as the peak of reconciliation between Am Israel and our God.

Rabbi Bibas had practical plans and ideas to inspire the Jews to come to Zion. His plan, which we will explain in more detail B’H next week, might be summarized with one single word: “education”.

(to be continued...)

WATCH: Shema Israel  Understanding the wisdom of Judaism’s most important prayer.

From Aish.com by Charlie Harary

(To be continued…)

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.