Derashoth [homilies]

ALGAZI, ISRAEL JACOB BEN YOM TOV

Jerusalem

c.1744

Manuscript in Hebrew, written in a semi-cursive Sephardic hand on paper.

UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT . Portions of this manuscript were published - inexactly - in She’erith Ya’akov (Constantinople 1745), however much of the work still remains unpublished. The homilies here are often are preceded by captions for whom they were said (Raphael Treves [9b], R. Shabthai Najara [17a], R. Chaim Abulaphia [37b], etc). R. Yisrael Ya’akov Algazi (1680-1756) was born in Izmir and studied there under R. Chaim Abulafia and R. Yitzchak Rapaport (author of Batei Kehunah). He moved to Jerusalem in 1735 where he studied in the celebrated Yeshiva reserved for Kabbalists, Beth El. Thereafter R. Algazi was appointed Rishon LeTzion, Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic community of Eretz Israel. He authored many books, among them Shalmei Tzibur, Shalmei Chagigah, Arah D’Rabbanan and Emeth LeYa’akov. He also anonymously published the controversial Chemdath Yamim, a collection of prayers and laws arranged according to the cycle of the Jewish year and noted for its eloquent literary style. See EJ, Vol. II, cols. 609-611.