Moses Ḥagiz
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Moses Hagiz (1671 – c. 1750) (
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 ...
: משה חגיז) was a
Talmudic The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...
scholar,
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 writer born in
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during the time of the
Old Yishuv The Old Yishuv (, ''haYishuv haYashan'') were the Jewish communities of the Land of Israel during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah waves, and the consolidation of the new Yishuv by the end of World War I. Unlike the new Yis ...
. He was also one of the most prominent and influential Jewish leaders in 17th-century
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. During Hagiz's lifetime, there was an overall decline in rabbinic authority which was the result of migration and assimilation, and Hagiz devoted his career to restoring rabbinic authority. His most prominent talent was as a polemicist, and he campaigned ceaselessly against Jewish heresy in an attempt to unify the rabbinate.


Biography

Moses' father, Jacob Hagiz, died while Moses was still a child. The latter was therefore educated by his maternal grandfather, Moses Galante (the Younger), who had succeeded his son-in-law. With the death of Moses Galante (1689) support from
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was withdrawn, and Hagiz found himself in very straitened circumstances. He went to
Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...
to collect a claim which his mother had against the congregation, but succeeded only in making bitter enemies who later persecuted him. Returning to Jerusalem, he was given letters of recommendation nominating him as a rabbinical emissary or '' shadar'' sent to obtain support for a '' bet ha-midrash'' (study hall) which he intended to establish. At Rashid (
Rosetta Rosetta ( ) or Rashid (, ; ) is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Rosetta Stone was discovered there in 1799. Founded around the 9th century on the site of the ancient town of Bolbitine, R ...
), Abraham Nathan gave him 30,000 thalers to deposit at
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for this purpose. Arriving at Livorno, he secured from
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, the protector of his family, a promise of further support; but his Palestinian enemies slandered him and ruined his prospects. He subsequently wandered through
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, and edited at
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(1704) the ''Halakot Ketannot'' of his father. Somewhat later he went to Amsterdam, where he supported himself by teaching, and occupied himself with the publication of his works. In Amsterdam he made the acquaintance of Tzvi Ashkenazi, then rabbi of the Ashkenazic congregation, and assisted him in unmasking the impostor Nehemiah Hayyun. This step, however, made more enemies for him, and, like Tzvi Ashkenazi, he had to leave the city (1714). Until 1738 he resided at Altona; he then returned to Palestine, settling first at
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, and later at
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, where he died sometime after 1750. He married a daughter of Raphael Mordecai Malachi, and was therefore a brother-in-law of Hezekiah da Silva. He had no children.


Anti-Sabbateanism

From an early age, Hagiz was exposed to both Sabbatean and anti-Sabbatean leaders. Moses's father Jacob was the leading rabbi in Jerusalem in 1666 and issued a ban against
Sabbatai Zevi Sabbatai Zevi (, August 1, 1626 – ) was an Ottoman Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). His family were Romaniote Jews from Patras. His two names, ''Shabbethay'' and ''Ṣebi'', mean Saturn and mountain gazelle, ...
. His teacher Abraham Yitzchaki was a fierce anti-Sabbatean after the apostasy. Moses's maternal grandfather was probably a Sabbatean prophet, and under his leadership in Jerusalem the Sabbatean community grew. Moses' father-in-law Raphael Mordecai Malachi was a crypto-Sabbatean leader in Jerusalem and this perhaps led to his falling out with Hagiz. For much of Moses's travels after leaving Jerusalem, Malachi caused immense problems. When Hagiz came to Amsterdam he immediately became embroiled in disputes with the Sephardic lay leadership, criticizing their lax religious observance and their anti-Rabbinic attitudes. When Nehemiah Hayyun arrived in Amsterdam and the Sephardic community agreed to publish his books, Hagiz, with the help of Hakham Tzvi Ashkenazi, began a crusade against his apparent Sabbateanism. The Sephardic leadership, and the community's rabbi Solomon Ayllon, supported Hayyun against Hagiz leading Hagiz to issue bans ('' herem'') against those who associated with Hayyun and the lay leadership to issue bans against those who associated with Hagiz. This Rabbinate-lay leadership battle soon involved rabbis from across Europe as Hagiz rallied the Rabbis against Hayyun, perhaps as part of his life goal of reestablishing Rabbinic supremacy in Jewish affairs. After Hayyun was banished from Amsterdam, Hagiz would encounter him again during later fights against Sabbateanism in the 1720s and 1730s. Hayyun and Hagiz both wrote many books attacking each other on both personal and theosophical bases. Hagiz was instrumental in the Eastern European anti-Sabbatean campaigns of the 1720s and 1730s, writing letters and books against Sabbatean thinking, and rallying the support of communities throughout the Jewish world. Later, Hagiz would also be a major figure in the controversies concerning Moses Chaim Luzzatto.


Works

Moses Hagiz was not only a great Talmudic scholar, but also a man of wider secular learning than most of the rabbis of his time. According to Wolf, who knew him personally, he understood several languages and was somewhat familiar with modern history (see his ''Mishnat Hakamim,'' Nos. 627 and 682); he advocated the study of secular sciences (ib. No. 114), and admitted that 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 ...
has been interpolated by later scribes (ib. No. 108). In regard to his character reports differ; some represent him as filled with sincere religious zeal, others as a contentious wrangler. Rabbi Yeshayahu Basan the mentor and staunchest defender of Luzzato describes Hagiz in one letter as a person who loves to quarrel and eager to criticize people's works, and that in one instance he criticized an author in regards to a claim that turned out to be an old Jewish tradition predating the author many hundreds of years.
Jacob Emden Jacob Emden, also known as the Yaʿavetz (June 4, 1697 – April 19, 1776), was a leading German rabbi and talmudist who championed traditional Judaism in the face of the growing influence of the Sabbatean movement. He was widely acclaimed for ...
describes him as a time-server, and even as religiously insincere, though he respected him as a friend of his father.''Megillat Sefer,'' pp. 117–122, Warsaw, 1896 Hagiz wrote: *''Lekeṭ ha-Kemah,'' novellae to the ''
Shulhan Arukh The ''Shulhan Arukh'' ( ),, often called "the Code of Jewish Law", is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Rabbinic Judaism. It was authored in the city of Safed in what is now Israel by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in V ...
'' (''OraH Hayyim'' and ''Yoreh De'ah'', Amsterdam, 1697 and 1707; ''Eben ha-'Ezer'', Hamburg, 1711 and 1715) *''Sefat Emet,'' on the religious significance of
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for Jews (Amsterdam, 1697 and 1707) *''Eleh haMitsvot,'' on the 613 commandments (Amsterdam, 1713 and Wandsbeck, 1727) *''Sheber Posh'im,'' polemics against Hayyun (London, 1714) *''Lekeṭ ha-Kemaḥ,'' commentary on the
Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...
(Wandsbeck, 1726) *''Perurei Pat haKemaḥ,'' commentary to
Book of Daniel The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th-century BC setting. It is ostensibly a narrative detailing the experiences and Prophecy, prophetic visions of Daniel, a Jewish Babylonian captivity, exile in Babylon ...
(Amsterdam, 1727) *''Zeror ha-Hayyim,'' ethics (Wandsbeck, 1728) *''Mishnaṭ Hakhamim,'' ethics (ib. 1733) *''Shetei ha-Leḥem,'' responsa (ib. 1733) *''Parashat Eleh Mas'ei,'' on the land of Yisrael (ib. 1733) Other works of his remained unpublished. He also wrote numerous prefaces to the books of others. His writings are signed "המני"ח", the letters of "Moses ibn Jacob Hagiz." (Among
Sephardic Jews 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 ...
the
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was used in its ending form to represent the
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word "ibn", meaning son of)


References

* Its bibliography: *
Grätz, Gesch. Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was a German exegete and one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (no ...
x., passim, especially pp. 479–482, where the older sources are quoted; *
Jacob Emden Jacob Emden, also known as the Yaʿavetz (June 4, 1697 – April 19, 1776), was a leading German rabbi and talmudist who championed traditional Judaism in the face of the growing influence of the Sabbatean movement. He was widely acclaimed for ...
, Megillat Sefer, Warsaw, 1896. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hagiz, Moses Sephardi rabbis from Ottoman Palestine 1671 births 1750s deaths 18th-century rabbis in Jerusalem Rabbis from Hamburg Authors of books on Jewish law Shelichei derabonan (rabbis)