| AdminHistory | Born Livorno, 1659; studied under Samuel Kushta and Judah Sharaf; migrated to Jerusalem prior to 1679 and there studied under Moses ben Jonathan Galante; sent as an emissary of Jerusalem to Central and Western Europe; influenced the wealthy Jacob Pereira to found a yeshivah in Jerusalem, Bet Ya'akov, and was head of this yeshivah from 1692 until his death; inclined to leniency in his halakhic rulings; his 'Peri Hadash', which contains exceptionally trenchant criticisms of the rulings of Joseph Caro and earlier codifiers, caused a violent controversy in Egypt, where the rabbis even thought of excommunicating him but instead ordered the book to be suppressed; in the course of time many leading halakhists came to accept his rulings; he apparently wrote works on the Talmud according to the kabbalistic system of Isaac Luria , which were suppressed, the section of his Peri Hadash dealing with the laws of the Sabbath being inadvertently destroyed along with them; died 1695. Publications include: 'Peri Hadash' (1692-1730, also published in later editions of the 'Shulhan Arukh' together with the other standard commentaries); 'Mayim Hayim' (1730); novellae on Maimonides, and responsa. |
| CustodialHistory | Formerly held with other Jewish collections in the Mocatta Library of University College London. |