Abraham ben Mordecai Azulai (c. 1570–1643) () was a
Kabbalistic
Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ().
Jewi ...
author and commentator born in
Fez, Morocco
Fez () or Fes (; ) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fez-Meknes, Fez-Meknes administrative region. It is one of the List of cities in Morocco, largest cities in Morocco, with a population of 1.256 million, according to ...
. In 1599 he moved to
Ottoman Palestine
The region of Palestine (region), Palestine is part of the wider region of the Levant, which represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia.Steiner & Killebrew, p9: "The general limits ..., as defined here, begin at the Plain of ' ...
and settled in
Hebron
Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...
.
Biography
In
Hebron
Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...
, Azulai wrote a commentary on the ''
Zohar
The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material o ...
'' under the title ''Kiryat Arba'' (City of Arba (in Hebrew four);
Gen. xxiii.2). The plague of 1619 drove him from his new home, and while in
Gaza, where he found refuge, he wrote his Kabalistic work ''Chesed le-Abraham'' (Mercy to Abraham;
Book of Micah
The Book of Micah is the sixth of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The book has seven chapters. Ostensibly, it records the sayings of Micah, whose name is ''Mikayahu'' (), meaning "Who is like Yahweh?", an 8th-century BCE prophet f ...
vii.20). It was published after the author's death by Meshullam Zalman ben Abraham Berak of Gorice, in Amsterdam, 1685. The work is a treatise with an introduction, (''The Cornerstone''; see Talmud
Yoma
Yoma (Aramaic: יומא, lit. "The Day") is the fifth tractate of '' Seder Moed'' ('Order of Festivals') of the ''Mishnah'' and of the ''Talmud''. It is concerned mainly with the laws of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, on which Jews atone for t ...
53b), and is divided into seven "fountains" (
Book of Zechariah
The Book of Zechariah is a Jewish text attributed to Zechariah, a Hebrew prophet of the late 6th century BC. In the Hebrew Bible, the text is included as part of the Twelve Minor Prophets, itself a part of the second division of that work. In ...
iii.9), each fountain being subdivided into a number of "streams." A specimen of the work Chesed Le-Avraham, taken from the fifth fountain, twenty-fourth stream, p. 57d, of the Amsterdam edition:
A popular story about Rabbi Azulai is that of how he retrieved the sultan's sword. When the Ottoman sultan visited Hebron, his precious sword fell into the
Cave of Machpela. Anyone sent down to retrieve it disappeared. Only Rabbi Azulai was able to descend into the cave and retrieve the sword.
He died in
Hebron
Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...
on November 6, 1643 and is buried in the
Old Jewish Cemetery in Hebron.
[Michael Laitman, ''Gems of Wisdom: Words of the Great Kabbalists from All Generations'', Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, 2011, p. 413-414]
One of the manuscripts that he left to his descendant,
Chaim Yosef David Azulai
Haim Yosef David Azulai ben Yitzhak Zerachia (; 1724 – 1 March 1806), commonly known as the Hida (also spelled Chida, the acronym of his name, ), was a Jerusalem born rabbinical scholar, a noted bibliophile, and a pioneer in the publication o ...
, is also published. It is a Kabalistic commentary on the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
. '' Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...
xiv.13), Vilna, 1873.
Pirkei Avot– a selection from Chesed le-Abraham
References
Jewish Encyclopedia
*
Azoulay, ''Shem ha-Gedolim,'' s.v.;
*
Isaac ben Jacob Benjacob, ''Oẓar ha-Sefarim,'' p. 196;
*
Julius Fürst
Julius Fürst (; 12 May 1805, Żerków, South Prussia – 9 February 1873, Leipzig), born Joseph Alsari, was a Jewish German oriental studies, orientalist and the son of noted maggid, teacher, and Hebrew grammarian Jacob Alsari. Fürst was a dis ...
, ''Bibliotheca Judaica,'' i.67;
*
Michael, Heimann Joseph (1891). ''Or ha-Ḥayyim''. Frankfort-on-the-Main. p. 12.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azulai, Abraham
1570s births
1643 deaths
People from Fez, Morocco
Kabbalists
Sephardi rabbis from Ottoman Palestine
Rabbis in Hebron
Moroccan writers
16th-century Moroccan rabbis
17th-century rabbis from the Ottoman Empire
Burials at Old Jewish cemetery in Hebron