(RaLBa”CH). Shailoth Uteshuvoth [responsa]

CHABIB, LEVI IBN JACOB.

Giovanni di Gara

Venice

1565

FIRST EDITION. Title within architectural arch. Astrological and calendrical charts

Vinograd, Venice 508; Mehlman 715 (noting textual variant); Adams L-607.

Following the author’s move from Spain to Portugal in 1492, Chabib, along with his father were forcibly baptized. The pair were able to escape to Salonika where they soon supplied a father-and-son team of leadership for the “Gerush Sefarad,” the community of Spanish exiles settled in Salonika. In time, the RaLBa”CH moved to the Holy Land in order to atone for his baptism as a youth, where he became embroiled over the issue of reconstituting the ancient Sanhedrin in Safed - a concept which he intensely opposed. See M. Benayahu, Chidushah shel Hasemichah Betzfat in: Yitzhak F. Baer Jubilee Volume (1960) pp.248-69