<<Sofer, Yoseph.>> Eduth B’Yehosef.

A travelogue containing the author’s journeys to and within Eretz Israel in the years 1758-2, and the “miracles which were wrought” in this period. The work became immensely popular, a testimony to the deep connection European Jews had with their ancestral homeland. The author arrived in Eretz Israel at a time of great change. Safed, recently struck by three earthquakes, was very much struggling, while the Jewish settlement in Tiberias had only recently been renewed by R. Haim Abulafia. The region was ruled by the Bedouin strongman Daher el-Omar, who sought to improve the Galilee’s economic prosperity, without incurring the jealousy and concern of his superiors in Istanbul. See Y. Ben-Zvi’s introduction (ed. Jerusalem 1933).