Amigo, Abraham
AMIGO, ABRAHAM
AMIGO, ABRAHAM (c. 1610/15–c. 1683), rabbi and author. Amigo was born in Constantinople, or Adrianople – where he was a pupil of Elijah Obadiah. He immigrated to Ere? Israel about 1655, settled in Jerusalem, and was a member of the bet midrash of Jacob *?agiz. The rabbis of Egypt and Turkey referred questions to him and his opinion was decisive. He also studied Kabbalah and joined the circle of Jacob b. ?ayyim ?ema?. Among his disciples in Jerusalem were David ha-Kohen Rapaport, author of Da'at Kedoshim, and ?ayyim Abulafia the Younger. Amigo was also a distinguished preacher and moralist and his homilies were transmitted by his pupils even after his death. He opposed Shabbetai ?evi and strove to have him banished. The rabbis of Constantinople wanted to appoint him as one of the "four great men in Israel" who were to go to Gaza to investigate *Nathan of Gaza. His works are Peri Hadash, on the Shul?an Arukh Ora? ?ayyim, from the laws of Passover to the end; and responsa, decisions, and novellae on the Talmud, mentioned by ?ayyim Joseph David *Azulai (part now in the Benayahu Collection). Some of his responsa were printed in the work of his colleague Samuel Garmison, Mishpetei ?edek (nos. 78, 99), and in Naharot Dammesek by Solomon Camondo (?m, no. 13).
bibliography:
M. Benayahu, in: Sinai, 17 (1945), 309–13.