Yaakov Shaul Elyashar (; 1 June 1817 – 21 July 1906), also known as Yisa Berakhah, was a 19th-century

Sephardi 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 ...

rabbi in

Ottoman Syria Ottoman Syria () is a historiographical term used to describe the group of divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of the Levant, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Ara ...

. He became Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Palestine in 1893.

Biography and rabbinic career

Yaakov Shaul Elyashar was born in

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 a prominent Sephardi rabbinical family that had resided in 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. The definition ...

for centuries. His father, Rabbi Eliezer Yeruham Elyashar (son of Rabbi Jacob Alyashar), was a

shochet In Judaism, ''shechita'' (anglicized: ; ; ; also transliterated ''shehitah, shechitah, shehita'') is ritual slaughtering of certain mammals and birds for food according to ''kashrut''. One who practices this, a kosher butcher is called a ''sho ...

. In 1824, when Elyashar was 7, his father died. The family was thrown into poverty, and his mother sold her home and belongings and supported her only son by working as a seamstress. They moved to

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 ...

; in 1828, she married Rabbi , who adopted Elyashar and became his teacher and mentor. By the time of his

bar mitzvah A ''bar mitzvah'' () or ''bat mitzvah'' () is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to Halakha, Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. Once Jewish children reach that age ...

, he was already considered a

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

prodigy. In 1832, at age 15, Elyashar married an orphaned girl. They had four children—three of whom were born while they were still living in his stepfather's home. In 1853, he was appointed '' dayan'' in Jerusalem and sent as the emissary of Jerusalem's Sephardic community to

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

. He was to persuade the Jewish community there to annul its decision to cease receiving rabbinic emissaries (''

meshulach A ''meshulach'' (; plural: ''meshulachim''), also known as a ''shaliach'' () or SHaDaR (, acronym for ), was an emissary sent to the Diaspora to raise funds ('' ḥalukka'') for the existence of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. The ...

im'') from the Land of Israel. He was successful in persuading them to annul the decision and invited to become the city's rabbi (an offer he refused). He became the associate head of the Jerusalem '' beth din'' in 1855 and head of the ''beth din'' in 1869. In 1893, he became the ''

Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( , "First to Zion") is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who were ...

'', or Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, following the death of ''Rishon LeZion'' Raphael Meir Panigel. He remained in that position for the next thirteen years until his death in 1906. Rabbi Shmuel Salant was the chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community at the time and they enjoyed very warm relations and collaborated on various issues affecting the entire Jewish community in Palestine. Elyashar wrote thousands of responses to questions from

Ashkenazim Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...

Sephardim 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 descendan ...

, and Temanim throughout the world—most of which were published in the ''Questions and Responsa'' "''Maase Ish''".''Questions and Responsa "Maase Ish"'', Jerusalem 1892; a microfilm of book available at the Hebrew University Library of Jerusalem (Givat-Ram Campus), Manuscript Dept., microfilm no. 2005 F 435.

Commemoration and legacy

The Jerusalem neighborhood of

Givat Shaul Givat Shaul (, lit. (''Saul's Hill''); ) is a neighborhood in West Jerusalem. The neighborhood is located at the western entrance to the city, east of the neighborhood of Har Nof and north of Kiryat Moshe. Givat Shaul stands 820 meters above sea ...

is named after Elyashar. One of his great-grandchildren was Israeli politician and writer Eliyahu Elyashar.

References

External links

Biography of Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Eliashar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elyashar, Jacob Saul 1817 births 1906 deaths People from Safed 19th-century rabbis from the Ottoman Empire Rishon LeZion (rabbi) Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives Rabbis in Ottoman Galilee Authors of books on Jewish law Sephardi rabbis from Ottoman Palestine Rabbinic judges