Moses ben Isaac Edrehi (; –)
Moroccan-born
cabalist and teacher of modern and Oriental languages. He resided mainly in
Amsterdam and in
England.
Biography
Moses Edrehi was born to a
Moroccan Jewish family in
Agadir. At an early age, when the Jews were expelled from that city, his family relocated to
Mogador, and after 1784 to
Rabat
Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...
. At the age of fourteen he began preaching in the city of
Meknes.
He arrived in
London in 1791, studying there at the
Sephardi beth midrash
A ''beth midrash'' ( he, בית מדרש, or ''beis medrash'', ''beit midrash'', pl. ''batei midrash'' "House of Learning") is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall." It is distinct from a synagogue (''beth kness ...
''Etz Ḥayyim''. He also lived for some time in
Amsterdam. Edrehi eventually left for the
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...
, via
France,
Italy,
Malta, and
Turkey.
Edrehi was a firm believer in the existence somewhere in
western Asia of the
Ten Lost Tribes, and was known for his eccentric character and manner of speech. In June 1829 there appeared in ''
Blackwood's Magazine'' one of
Christopher North's ''
Noctes Ambrosianae
The ''Noctes Ambrosianae'', a series of 71 imaginary colloquies, appeared in ''Blackwood's Magazine'' from 1822 to 1835. The earlier ones had several different authors, including John Gibson Lockhart, William Maginn, James Hogg and Professor Joh ...
'', devoted in large measure to his peculiarities.
Bibliography
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* (English translation published in London, 1834.)
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edrehi, Moses
18th-century Moroccan Jews
18th-century Moroccan people
19th-century Moroccan Jews
British people of Moroccan-Jewish descent
Jewish English writers
Kabbalists
People from Agadir