Isaac Chelo (also Hilo, Hilu or Khelo), in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

יצחק חילו, was a

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 ...

of the 14th century. His place of residence is unclear. Eliakim Carmoly, in his French supposed translation of Chelo's itinerary, wrote "Laresa du royaume d'Aragon", which

Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem (; 5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew Un ...

interpreted as an erroneous spelling of Lerida. However, Dan Shapira took it to mean

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

in Thessaly. Chelo is famous for an itinerary of the Holy Land first published in 1847, though many believe it to have been forged by Carmoly.

Chelo's Itinerary

In 1847, the controversial French scholar Eliakim Carmoly published an account titled ''Les chemins de Jérusalem'' (The Roads from Jerusalem, שבילי דירושלם in Hebrew), purporting to be Chelo's description of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and seven roads leading from it, written in 1333. An English translation was published by Elkan Adler in 1930. Carmoly wrote that the original Hebrew manuscript was in his own library, but when his library was catalogued after his death, no such manuscript was found. Scholem examined the library in 1925 and found nine lines of an 18th-century copy of the itinerary. He charged that the itinerary had a number of anachronisms, contradictions, and quotations from Kabbalistic works postdating Chelo.Shapira (2006), citing On this basis, Scholem judged the itinerary to be a forgery, written or greatly expanded by Carmoly himself. This assessment has been accepted by Michael Ish-Shalom, Dan Shapira,

Joshua Prawer Joshua Prawer (; November 22, 1917 – April 30, 1990) was a notable Israelis, Israeli historian and a scholar of the Crusades and Kingdom of Jerusalem. His work often attempted to portray Crusader society as a forerunner to later European Colon ...

and Yoel Elitzur. Prawer also alleged that there was no Jewish community 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 ...

at the time the Itinerary claimed to describe one. Prawer wrote that "This itinerary is unfortunately still being quoted by unwary scholars, even though the forgery was proved almost 50 years ago." Michael Ehrlich, on the other hand, argued against Scholem and Ish-Shalom that most of the itinerary was likely authentic, as much of the historical and geographical information presented therein appears correct, and there are multiple pieces of information that aren't likely to have been included by a mid-19th-century forger.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chelo, Isaac Holy Land travellers 14th-century Aragonese Jews 14th-century rabbis Explorers of Asia Medieval Jewish travel writers 14th-century travel writers Pilgrimage accounts People from Larissa Spanish explorers Sephardi rabbis 14th-century writers 19th-century hoaxes Literary forgeries 1847 books