Physical Description |
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[1] p., 265:209 mm., creased and split on folds, backed, age staining, small tear affecting few letters, ink on paper, Sephardic script, signed, sealed, and dated. Several key words in square block Hebrew letters, balance in script. |
Detailed Description |
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Appointing R. Mordecai Hayyim b. Joseph Meyuhas emissary for the Tiberian community. The document bears the signatures of the two chief rabbis of Erez Israel, R. Isaac b. Hezekiah Joseph Covo and R. Benjamin Mordecai Navon, R. Mordecai Eliezer Suzin, and R. Joseph Yom Tov b. Raphael Meyuhas.
R. Isaac b. Hezekiah Joseph Covo, called Morenu (1770–1854), member of family originating from Covo near Milan, which produced many rabbis who flourished mainly at Salonika. In 1805 he went to Turkey as an emissary of Jerusalem. In his old age he returned to Erez Israel and in 1848 was appointed hakham bashi in Jerusalem. In 1854, at the age of 83, he set out as an emissary of Jerusalem to Egypt and died in Alexandria. On an earlier mission he visited Germany. His writings have remained in manuscript. A brochure by him, entitled Degel Mahaneh on the Mahaneh Efrayim of R. Ephraim Navon, was published in the Ateret Zahav (vol. 2, Jerusalem, 1898) of R. Isaac Badhav.
R. Benjamin Mordecai b. Ephraim Navon (1788–1851), kabbalist and halakhist, one of the outstanding Jerusalem sages of his time, son of R. Ephraim b. Jonah Navon. R. Navon was called Jilibin (lelebi, a Turkish title of honor). He was head of the kabbalists of the "Midrash Hasidim Kehillah Kedoshah Bet El" and head of a bet din. He devoted himself to a great extent to communal affairs, and assisted Israel Bak in establishing his pioneer printing press in Jerusalem in 1841. Navon wrote many responsa, some of which were published under the title Benei Binyamin (1876) by R. Jacob Saul Elyashar, his stepson and disciple, who also included many of his sermons in his Ish Emunim (1885).
R. Mordecai Eliezer Suzin (d. 1868), Jerusalem rabbi and kabbalist. His signature appears on many period documents including in 1807 for the Yeshiva Keneset Israel, founded by R. Hayyim Ben Attar.
R. Joseph Yom Tov Meyuhas was the son of R. Rafael Meyuchas b. Samuel Meyuhas(?1695–1771) the chief rabbi (rishon le-Zion) of Jerusalem. R. Raphael Meyuhas was born in Jerusalem and studied in the yeshiva Bet Ya'akov, which he subsequently headed. In 1723 when the troubles of the Jewish community of Jerusalem were aggravated because of the harsh rule of its governor, Yussuf Pasha, R. Raphael was sent by R. Abraham Yizhaki, the rishon le-Zion, to Constantinople to plead for the governor's removal. R. Meyuhas served as av bet din in Jerusalem, his colleagues including R. Isaac Zerahiah Azulai and, much later, his son R. H. J. D. Azulai. In 1756 on the death of R. Israel Jacob Algazi, he was appointed rishon le-Zion. In one of his rulings R. Raphael endeavored to bring about a rapprochement between the Karaites and the Rabbanites, permitting the Karaites to send their children to the talmud torah. Tradition has it, however, that R. Raphael later recanted his ruling. He was the author of: Minhat Bikkurim (Salonika, 1752) on the Talmud; Peri ha-Adamah in 4 parts (ibid., 1752–57 (64?)), novellae on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah with responsa - appended to the fourth part are homilies called Penei ha-Adamah; Mizbah Adamah (ibid., 1777) on the Shulhan Arukh. R. Raphael was the brother of R. Abraham b. Samuel Meyuhas and the father of R. Moses Joseph Mordecai Meyuhas. |