Hamuy, Abraham. Gabar Israel [encyclopedia of Rabbinic knowledge arranged alphabetically]. Translated from the Hebrew by Israel Gabay.

(SEPHARDICA).

La Linea

Linea de la Concepcion, [Spain]

1882

See Kayserling, Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica (1971) p.184, no. 40.

Gibraltarian Rabbinic Work in Spanish. Conforms to the uniquely Sephardic Rabbinic genre, whereby the laws (halachoth) are arranged in Hebrew alphabetical order. Both the author, Abraham Hamuy, and the translator Israel Gabay, resided in the British possession of Gibraltar. Hamuy writes in his Preface that the book’s title “Gabar Israel,” by metathesis comes out to read “Gibraltar” [p. vi]. This explains the fact that the work was printed nearby in La Linea, the Spanish town abutting the frontier with Gibraltar. In his Translator’s Prologue, Gabay explains that he was forced to transliterate the Hebrew words into Roman characters, as the La Linea press lacked Hebrew type (p. xi). R. Abraham Shalom Hamuy (or Hamway) (1839-88), a native of Aleppo, travelled in the course of his life from India in the East, to Gibraltar in the West, consulting local scholarly libraries and publishing sacred works along the way. His Hebrew works are graced by the Approbations of the great luminaries, such as R. Chaim Palache of Izmir, the Rishon LeZion, R. Abraham Ashkenazi; and R. Suleiman Mani, Av-Beth-Din of Hebron. Many of Hamuy’s works abound in seguloth and he was venerated in certain communities as a miracle-worker. See D. Sutton, Aleppo: City of Scholars (2005) pp.194-196, no. 269; S. Vanunu, Arzei HaLevanon (2006) Vol. I, pp. 185-87.