Rosanes
ROSANES
ROSANES (Rosales ), Spanish family originating in the town of Castallvi de Rosanes, near Barcelona. With the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the members of this family emigrated to Portugal. There they were compelled to convert to Christianity, changing their family name to Rosales. The members of this family were then dispersed in the Oriental countries and those of Eastern and Western Europe. The most prominent members of this family included: jacob*rosales (beginning of the 16th century) in Fez; jacob hebraeus*rosales (17th century); Ẓevi hirsch *rosanes (18th century); and abraham abele rosanes of Minsk. jacob rosanes (19th century), the German mathematician, also belonged to this family.
A large part of the family settled in *Turkey and the Balkan countries. abraham b. meir rosanes (1635?–1720) was a leading rabbi in Constantinople. He was born there and studied under Yom Tov *Ẓahalon and Solomon ha-Levi ha-Zaken. Between 1659 and 1677, he was rabbi in Adrianople, where he was the leader of the rabbis who issued a Ḥerem ("ban") against *Shabbetai Ẓevi. His son-in-law was his nephew judah b. samuel *rosanes, who mentioned some of the teachings of his father-in-law in his work Mishneh la-Melekh on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah. At the end of Abraham's life, he managed the press of his father-in-law, R. Samuel Franco, in Constantinople. He wrote notes and novellae as well as criticisms on Giddulei Terumah by Azariah *Figo. isaac b. david rosanes (1660?–1749) was a rabbi in Constantinople and settled in Jerusalem in 1733. A number of his responsa were published in the works of contemporary Ḥakhamim. abraham b. Ḥayyim rosanes (1665?–1744) was a rabbi and posek, the disciple of his uncle, R. Judah Rosanes. In 1718 he became chief rabbi of Constantinople. In 1743 he settled in Jerusalem, where he died. His responsa are scattered in the works of his contemporaries, such as the Battei Kehunnah by Isaac ha-Kohen *Rappaport. abraham b. joseph rosanes (1686–1757?) was a rabbi and posek in Constantinople and fought the Shabbatean movement. His responsa and novellae were published in the works of contemporary Ḥakhamim. isaac b. Ḥayyim rosanes was a wealthy merchant and purveyor to the Turkish army; he was assassinated in 1758 because of a debt which was owed to him by the vizier Valalodin Pasha.
abraham b. israel rosanes also known as Ha-abir (from the acronym Ha-Rav Abraham ben Israel Rosanes; 1838–1879), was a Ḥakham and merchant. He was born in Ruschuk (now Ruse), Bulgaria, where he engaged in commerce and established a yeshivah. In 1867 he emigrated to Ereẓ Israel. He sent letters on his impressions of Ereẓ Israel to his friend Menahem Farḥi, which were published in Ha-Maggid (11–12 (1867–68)) under the title Masot he-Ḥakham Ha-Abir and a second time by A.M. Habermann (see bibliography). In these letters, he describes the towns of Safed, Tiberias, Jerusalem, Hebron, and their surroundings. After a short while he returned to his native town. His brother, mordecai rosanes, financed the paving of the Western Wall area in Jerusalem in 1874. Abraham's son solomon *rosanes was a scholar and historian of the Jews of the Oriental countries.
bibliography:
Frumkin-Rivlin, 3 (1929), 19–20; Recueil jubilaire en l'honneur de Salomon A. Rosanes (1933), passim; M.D. Gaon, in: Mizraḥ u-Ma'arav, 5 (1930–32), 398–409; idem, Yehudei ha-Mizraḥ be-Ereẓ-Yisrael, 2 (1937), 635–43; Rosanes, Togarmah, 4 (1934–35), 107–13; 5 (1937–38), 17–19, 64–65, 90, 178; A.M. Habermann, in: Sinai, 33 (1953), 312–9, 373–82; 34 (1953–54), 241–64; Hirschberg, Afrikah, 2 (1965), 302–3, 305; Z. Harkavy, in: Ḥokhmat Yisrael be-Ma'arav Eiropah, 2 (1963), 249–56.
[Abraham David]