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380 "

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Alfrazi

Algeria

ALOAZI, MOSES JOSEPH



Hnbbi

at Cairo,

Eirypt; liciiii ITiil; dicil alter ISKI. ill which year he liccaiiif pniniiriiiit thnmgli Ihi- (•iicr;:rctic supi)(>rt which he gave to Cremicux ami Salonioii Muiik in their effort to establish sdiools for llie Jews of Egypt. The moveineiit was a direct outgrowth of the" eastern journey of Montctiorc, Creiuieux, and Munk on the occasion of the Damascus bloodaccusjition, when the low plane of eniiuhleninent prevalent among Egyptian Jews became manifest to the philanthropists. Mnnk issued an eloiiuent appeal in Hebrew and Arabic ( Septemlier, 1.S40). At Alexandria, the l(Hal rabbi, a.ssisted by a prominent layman. Valensiuo. liead<'d the movement, while at Cairo, which contained about three hundred Jewish families, Algazi, though already seventy-six years of age, seconded by a leading layman, Adda, made such a strenuous cITort on behalf of the I'l.iii that on Oct. 4, l^ilO, two schools one for boys and one were opened. The institutions received for girls the name of the Cremieux schools; and their sponsor made iiimself responsible for a European annual contribution of (i.ODU francs toward their maintenance. Algazi, moreover, showed an additional trait of tolerance when, desjiile the opjiosition of luimerous fanatics, he supported ^lunU in the juoposiil to admit to the schools the children of the Karaites, of whom there were at Cairo about one hundred. The establishment of these institutions signilied the beginning of secularculture among tlx^ Jews of modern Egypt and soon after this event .Moses Fresco, chief rabbi of Constantinople, i.ssucd a circular letter exhorting them to learn the language of the country.

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—



BIISI.IOORAPHY: Griitz, Gcsch. if. Jiiddi.Med.. xl. .T45 rt sr.q.; Munli's appeal (in Arabic), in Zi.

of Constantinople

II.

ALGAZI



IRtl, Niis. 11, Hi; Letter ut Uie in AUij. Zr.it. </. Jinl. 1S41, p. li!.

."i2;

(ALGHASI),

ISAAC BEN JOSEPH,

Hakam

G. E.

SAMUEL BEN

of Candia (Crete);

'I'al

nuidic;d eununentator ;iiid histiaiau. died shortly before 1588. He came of a family of scholars, both father and grandfather being known as Talnnidists.

Joseph Solomon Delmedigo bestowed upon Algazi the title of "Gaon," at the same tiiue declaring that he was the most prominent pupil of Delmedigo's ancestor Judah ben Eli.jah. Algazi does not seem to have left Crete; but the fa(t that this island belonged to Venice made it easier for Algazi's name to become known in Italy. Men of prominence ranked

him among

Of his the great teachers of his time. works, onlya small chronicle, "Toledot Adam " (The Generations of Adam), was published by his grandThis son Samuel ben Moses Zarfati (Venice, IfiO.")). " chronicle, which is based largely ujion the " Yuhasin

Abraham Zacuto, begins with Adam and coiicIikIcs with the burning of Hebrew writings in Italy on Sept. His consolation was that 9 (New-year's Day), 15.53. in the small towns of Crete. God had saved a " brand of

from the burning"; meaning thereby that in Crete the Talmud and other Hebrew books li;ul been spared. Oddly enough. Algazi fixed u|)on the year 1581! as the beginning of a new era from which he reckoned all dates; for example, he would cite Adam and Eve as having lived in the year 5343 before that year. He was in a measure influenced by the Midrash, from which probably he obtained the names of the wives of Seth, Noah, and Tcrali. He placed the exodus of the Ephraimites from Egypt and their annihilation year 2924, or 2,42(j years after the Creation. Concerning the Christian chronology he says:

in the

380

" 1672 years since the Nazarene. according

to

our tradition

accoixlln),' In their reclionlnir, 10i;t since the blnb (of Jiwus] Illat i.s, (he ei);tlt4HMi(h ye«r of Ibe one hundred and ninety-.sixtjl

cycle ; timl is, the two biindn-il and severily-seveiitb year of the Seteiicldan em. eqiiivaleiil to the thice hiiiulriHl and seventeentJi yeiu- of the S4-cond Teinpie, and the Ilfteen bundivd and eightysecond year since the foundation of their reli^'ion." It would ajipear from this that he wrote his little book in the last fotu' months of 1582; besides, he counts since September, 1553, thirty years. Algazi chronicled the birth of Mohanmied and the takingof Constantinojile ,iust as he did the most im-

portant events in the history of the persecution of the Jews or of their literary history. He knew the Cierman Jews as well as the Spanish. Algazi's tmiiublished works ai'e; (1) "Biur 'Aruk Gadi)l,"a com mint ar.v on the book " Vereiin " by Eliezer of Mctz. w hich was given the same importance as Joseph Caro's" Bet Vosef"; (2)"Kebuzat Kesef," a concordance to both Talmuds, Mekilta,Sifra,Sifre, and till- Midrash Habbot (3) "Tanhumot El," w hich is said to have contained glosses on the Psalms and probably s<'rmons also; (4) "Derashot" (Disquisitions), which are probably identical with the "Shi tot" (Novella') to eighteen Talmudic treatises and to the J'n (Habbenu Nissim), mentioned by Delmedigo.

Bun.iO(:R.riiY:

Solomon Delmedigo, Bffiii, p. 44, tm-Gnlnlim, s.v.: Wolf, Bibl.

.Inspph

(irlessa, 1S44; Aziilai. Sliiin 11, hr. i. lusil; stelnscbneidpr.

Cut. lindl. No.

70tK).

A.

ALGAZI, SOLOMON NISSIM, Kabbi

in

Li:.

the Elder:

Smyrna and in Jerusalem in the sevenHe must not be confused with his

teenth century.

griindsoii and namesake, a labbi in Egyjit in the eighteenth century. Solomon Algazi was a jirolilic writer on all topics of rabbinical literatuic. iind has won distinction by his ticatment of Talmudic lier-

meneutics and methodology. His attempts to rationalize Talmudic Haggadot. while not scientific in a modern sense, still prove him to have been superior to theaveiage Talmudist of his age. His best work is his Talmudic methodology, "Vabiu Shemu'ali He Will Elucidate the ^lcs.sagc), which is written in the form of a conunentary to Joshua Levi's "Ilalikot 'Olam" (Venice, 13!»; Leghorn, 1792). lie wrote two other works on Talmudic methodologv; namelv, " Halikot Eli" (The Wavs of >Iv Goil; Smyrna. 1063), and "Gufe Ilalakot" (Principle of Halakah Smyrna, 1G75). Algazi was also the author of " Ahabat 'Olam" (Everlasting Love), a series of homilies (Constant inojile, 1042; Dvherufurth, 1093); "Hamon Kabbah" (The Great ".Multitude), I



an index of the Biblical ]iass;igcs (piotcd in ."Midrash Habbah(Constanlinople, 1044); "Zehab Sebali" (The Gold of the Iloaiy Head), on Talmudic Haggadot, (Constantinople, 1083); "Leliem Setarim" (Secret Bread), Talmudic novellii; (Vi-nice, 1004); "Me'ullefet Saiipirim"

(Overlaid with

Sapphires), selec-

tions from the 1703); "Razuf

Zohar (Smvrna, 1005; Amsterdam, Ahabah " "(Inlaid with Love), or "Apiiion Shelomnh " (Solomon's Palantpiin), notes on the Tosafot to the liaggadic passages in the Talmud (Smyrna, 1059; Amsterdam, 1710); "Ta'awah la-'Eiiavim" (A Delight to the P^ves). notes on the Talmudic Haggadot (Salouica, 165"5 Sulzbaeh, 1087).

BiRi.ior.K.M'iiv: Azulai, Slirm>iii-GednUm,p.Si; Stelnsclinelder, Cdl. lii'dl. col. i.'77 ; Fiirst, Bihl. Jud. i. 37, m.

D.

ALGAZI, YOM-TOB BEN ISRAEL JACOB: Commentator;

lived at Jerusalem in the eighteenth century; author of a commentary on

Nahmanides' "Hilkot Bekorot " (Laws Concerning Primogeniture), which was published at Leghorn in 1794, Some consider him to be the author of