BRANDON, BENJAMIN RAPHAEL DIAS. Emek Binyamin. * With: (As issued) Brandon’s Oroth ha-Mitzvoth

On f.22v, the author records the first Halachic query asked by a European of a Rabbi on the American Continent. This volume of responsa contains the first responsum solicited by a European from a rabbi living in the New World (ff. 17-20). Benjamin Brandon of Amsterdam asked the advice of Aaron Ledesma of Surinam regarding an inheritance case. Brandon (d. ca. 1750) was a cantor, Ledesma, a physician and a graduate of Amsterdam’s Etz Hayyim, served as a rabbi in Surinam beginning in 1737. It is curious that Brandon, who lived in a city replete with well-known scholars, dispatched his responsum to an obscure rabbi in distant America. Ultimately, Brandon disagreed with his correspondent’s decision and he issued his own opinion (f. 22b). On Ledesma, see Isaac S. and Suzanne A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Nethelands Antilles, Vol. I, p. 178. On Brandon, see JE, vol. 3, p. 353. On the book, see Mendel Silber, America in Hebrew Literature, pp. 41-2 (English section), 57 (Hebrew section)