A legal decision concerning a monetary dispute between a husband and wife which was adjudicated in non-Jewish court (“erka’oth shel goyim.”)

ATTAR, JUDAH IBN.

Morocco

17th-18th Century

Autograph Manuscript Signed. North African cursive Hebrew script. Two hands: Lines 5-10 in hand of R. Judah ibn Attar; lines 1-5 in a different hand. With R. Judah ibn Attar’s signature with elaborate Sephardic monogram.

R. Judah ibn Attar (1655-1733), pre-eminent Moroccan halachist, was known as “Rabbi al-Kabbir” (“the great teacher”). A native of Fez, he spent most of his life there, but for a brief stint in Meknes (1701-04), where he fled to escape persecution. Despite his honored position as Av Beth Din, he refused to accept remuneration, supporting himself as a jeweler. Moroccan Jewry reveres his memory, attributing to him numerous miracles and wonders and his tomb in Fez is still visited. Some of R. Judah ibn Attar’s responsa were published in Mishpat u-Tzedakah be-Ya’akov by his disciple R. Jacob Abensur [Ya’abetz] although many are now lost. He also composed a commentary on the Pentateuch, Minchath Yehudah (Meknes, 1940). See EJ, Vol. III, cols. 835-836 and J. Ben-Naïm, Malkei Rabbanan (1931), ff. 46-50. R. Judah ibn Attar was a member of the same extended family as R. Chaim ibn Attar (1696-1743), the famed author of the “Ohr HaChaim” commentary to the Chumash.