(Pinkas Shadar)

BAGAYO, CHAIM RACHAMIM; AND ZE’EVI, YITZCHAK OF HEBRON.

Europe

1763- 1772

Manuscript on paper. In Hebrew in a variety of Ashkenazic and Sephardic cursive scripts; also Italian and Spanish. Contains over 100 signatures of Rabbis and communal leaders in 66 cities. Final leaf contains a list written in the hand of Chaim Joseph David Azulai noting various Lurianic kabbalistic works

Yaari, Sheluchei Eretz Yisrael, p. 586- 89

THE SECOND KNOWN PINKAS-SHADAR RECORD OF A MISSION TO EUROPE. SUBSEQUENTLY OWNED BY CHAIM JOSEPH DAVID AZULAI. This Pinkas-Shadar records the mission of Bagayo and Ze’evi, on behalf of Hebron, that took them to Italy, France, Germany and Holland. The opening pages of the manuscript contain a partial resume of autograph inscriptions by Hezkia Shabbetai Elhanan (Del Vecchio) of Casale, Eliya Levi of Alessandria, David Mendez Soares of Bayonne, Ya’akov Shne’ur Mitsrani of Carpentras, Isaiah Nidman of Avignon, Joshua Modaglio of Nice, Yisrael Bassan of Reggio, M. A. Matsliah of Florence; and a 2-page autograph manuscript written in elegant prose in a fine square script, by Menahem Navarro of Verona, dated 1767. Ya’ari (pp.586-89) remarks that while no record of their mission exists in manuscript form, Bagayo and Ze’evi are known from approbations in books published at Hamburg in 1770, and at Amsterdam in 1769; from a responsum signed by Ze’evi at Turin in 1768; and from one-page printed notices of their mission in French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew, published at Venice. One of these notices was sent to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1770, and the Jewish communities of Newport, New York and Philadelphia together contributed $70 to the mission. It is beguiling to note that the Jews of Newport, could not read Bagayo and Ze’vi's flowery Hebrew and had to resort to the services of the Christian theologian and Hebraist, Ezra Stiles, to read and translate it for them (see G. Kohut, Ezra Stiles ad the Jews, N.Y., 1902, pp. 64-66). Bagayo and Ze’evi traveled for nine years, stayed in each community for an extended period and received considerable sums for their cause. Azulai grumbled in his autobiography Ma’agal Tov that communities he had visited on his second mission had refused to provide him funds as they complained they had given to Bagayo and Ze’evi ten years earlier. Bagayo and Ze’evi were probably among the most resourceful and effective Sheluchim for some decades, and the manuscript offered here attests to their success. The Pinkas-Book of Sheluchim served as a travel- guide to subsequent Sheluchim on their own missions. The Chid"a therefore obtained this Pinkas to guide him in his travels on his second mission to Europe in 1778. Until now, this Pinkas is entirely unknown.