Shalom Messas () was a Moroccan

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

and scholar who served as

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

of Morocco, and later as

Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem The position of Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem was instituted centuries ago and was originally held by a member of the Sephardic community. Moses Galante served as Rishon LeZion, the title used from beginning of the 17th century to refer to the chie ...

Biography

Messas was born in

Meknes Meknes (, ) is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom. Founded in the 11th century by the Almoravid dynasty, Almoravids as a military settlement, Mekne ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

in 1909. He was the son of Rabbi Maimoun Messas and his wife, Rachel. In his youth, he studied with his father and with Rabbi Yitzhak Sabag, Dayan and Rosh Yeshiva in Meknes. Messas also attended an

Alliance Israélite Universelle The Alliance israélite universelle (AIU; ; ) is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 with the purpose of safeguarding human rights for Jews around the world. It promotes the ideals of Jewish self-defense and self-suffi ...

school. He was a promising Torah prodigy at a very young age, and was a leading student of Morocco's Chief Rabbi Yehoshua Berdugo. The Messas family is an old one, with roots deep within Spain and Portugal. In 1960 he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Casablanca; he later served as Chief Rabbi of all Morocco. In 1978, then Israeli Chief Rabbi

Ovadia Yosef Ovadia Yosef (, ; September 24, 1920 – October 7, 2013) also known as Maran (Hebrew language, Hebrew: מרן) "Our Master", was an History of the Jews in Iraq#Otoman rule, Iraqi-born Talmudic scholar, hakham, posek, and the Sephardi Jews, Sephar ...

asked Rabbi Messas to come to the holy city and become its Chief Sephardic Rabbinical authority. When he departed for Israel, Messas was escorted to the airport by Morocco's

King Hassan II Hassan II (; 9 July 1929 – 23 July 1999) was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. A member of the Alawi dynasty, he was the eldest son of King Mohammed V of Morocco, Mohammed V, and his second wife Princess Lalla Abla ...

himself, who requested that the Rabbi bless him one last time before his departure, and with that was his last official act in Moroccan. Ovadia Yosef consulted with Messas in matters of Jewish law and scholarship, often citing him as his support in issuing bold ''

halachic ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mitz ...

'' decisions. Messas worked on important matters of ''

Halacha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mi ...

'' right up to his last days. He was said to be very exact in preserving

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

customs, and would work full days and nights to try to find a Halachic way to solve the issue at hand. As an author of many books, he wrote his first significant scholarly work, ''Mizrach Shemesh'' in 1930, and his last work, ''V'Cham HaShemesh'' was written in 2002. Messas died on Shabbat ''Hagadol'' (April 12), 2003, at the age of 94. He was buried in Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem. His many works include: ''Mizrah Shemesh'', ''Tevouot Shemesh'', ''Shemesh Umagen'', ''Beit Shemesh'' and ''Veham Hashemesh''. He also edited and published the following books: * ''Divre Moshe'' by Chief Rabbi Moses ben Abraham Berdugo, called "Mashbir" * ''Divre Mordechai'' by Rabbi Mordechai Berdugo, Hamarbitz * ''Torot Emet, Me Menuhot, Rav Peninim'' and ''Messamehe Lev'' by his great-great-great-grandfather Rabbi Raphael Berdugo * ''Lev Mevin'' and ''Penei Mevin'' by Rabbi Mimoun Berdugo * ''Edout Beyaakov'' by his great-grandfather Rabbi Yaacov Berdugo. * ''Divre Chalom'' by his grandfather also named Rabbi Chalom Messas. * ''Guevoul Binyamine'' * ''Divre Yossef''

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Family Tree

{{DEFAULTSORT:Messas, Shalom 1909 births 2003 deaths Chief rabbis of Jerusalem 20th-century Moroccan rabbis Sephardi rabbis 20th-century rabbis in Jerusalem People from Meknes Moroccan writers Burials at Har HaMenuchot 21st-century rabbis in Jerusalem Chief rabbis of Morocco

Biography

See also

References

External links