?ayyim Abraham Raphael ben Asher

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?AYYIM ABRAHAM RAPHAEL BEN ASHER

?AYYIM ABRAHAM RAPHAEL BEN ASHER (d. 1772), Jerusalem rabbi and kabbalist. ?ayyim was a member of the bet din of Raphael *Meyu?as, and later av bet din in Jerusalem. Toward the end of his life, in 1771, he was appointed rishon le-Zion (Sephardi chief rabbi). In 1731 (or 1734) he published in Constantinople the Sha'arei Kedushah of ?ayyim *Vital. Between the years 1734 and 1765 he traveled as an emissary of Jerusalem, seeking contributions in Constantinople, Italy, France, and Egypt. ?ayyim was a signatory of the Shetar Hitkasherut ("articles of association") of the society of kabbalists. Head of the yeshivah Yefa?er Anavim in Jerusalem, he cosigned the takkanah forbidding bachelors between the ages of 20 and 60 from residing in Jerusalem. He gave approbations to many works, among them the Ziv?ei Shelamim of Judah Diwan (Constantinople 1728), and the Shul?an Gavoha of Joseph Molkho, Salonika, o? 1756; yd 1764. He died during a famine and plague that raged in Jerusalem.

bibliography:

Frumkin-Rivlin, 3 (1929), 98f.; Yaari, Shelu?ei, 289–91; Rosanes, Togarmah, 5 (1938), 240, 243; Katsh, in: Sefunot, 9 (1964), 323–35.

[Simon Marcus]

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