Discourse of Rabbi Isaac Raphael Finzi, Chief Rabbi of Padua

(ITALIAN JUDAICA)

(Padua)

1794

Manuscript. Italian interspersed with Hebrew

According to his student Mordecai Ghirondi, R. Isaac Raphael Finzi (1728-1812) was acknowledged as one of the outstanding halachists of his generation. In the responsa literature of the day he is addressed as “saba de-mishpatim” (master of Law). He was a disciple of R. Isaac Lampronti (famed author of the encyclopedia of Halacha, Pachad Yitzchak) in his native Ferrara, and was married to the daughter of the kabbalist R. Abraham Segre of Casale, where he served as assistant rabbi. In his capacity as Chief Rabbi of Padua, he would preach extemperaneously for as long as two to three hours. His talks so spellbound the audience that even members of the Italian nobility would flock to hear his sermons. Finzi served as a member of the French Sanhedrin in 1806 and was elected its vice-president. (The Nassi or president was the great Alsatian halachist Joseph David Sinzheim.) See Mordecai Samuel Ghirondi and Hananel Neppi, Toldoth Gedolei Israel u-Ge’onei Italia, pp. 126-132, no. 8; EJ VI, col.1301