Ma'avar Yabok
1549 CE–1639 CE · Acharonim · Modena
R. Aaron Berechiah of Modena (d. 1639) authored Ma'avar Yabok — the foundational text for Jewish death-and-mourning ritual practice across all Sephardic, Italian, and a wide swath of Ashkenazi-kabbalistic communities. The work treats the cycle from the visit to the dying through burial, shivah, the eleven months, and the first-year practices, weaving together halacha, Lurianic Kabbalah, and specific prayer texts.
A leading disciple of R. Menachem Azariah of Fano (the Rama mi-Fano), Berechiah was an active member of the Hevrah Kadisha of Modena; the tikkunim (prayer-services) he composed for the moments of death, burial, and yahrzeit became standard in the Italian-Sephardic world and were adopted by Hasidic and many Sephardic mourning rites. He also wrote Ashmoret HaBoker (a Lurianic dawn-vigil tikkun) and Bigdei Aharon.
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ModenaמודנהNorthern Italy — Este duchy
What they did here
Lived and worked in Modena; studied under R. Hillel of Modena and R. Menachem Azariah of Fano. Active member of the Modena Hevrah Kadisha. Composed Ma'avar Yabok and Ashmoret HaBoker here. Died in Modena 1639.
About Modena
Modena under the Este dynasty hosted a thriving Jewish community; R. Aaron Berechiah of Modena (d. 1639) authored Ma'avar Yabok here, the foundational text for Sephardic-Italian mourning ritual.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Ma'avar Yabok’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
- R. Mordechai Yoffe (Levush)· 1530 CE–1612 CE
- Zechariah al-Dahiri· 1531 CE–1608 CE
- Rabbi Aharon Binyamin Solnik· 1535 CE–1619 CE
- R. Yisrael Sarug· 1540 CE–1610 CE
- Rabbi Dovid Gans· 1541 CE–1613 CE
- Chaim Vital· 1542 CE–1620 CE
- R. Menachem Azariah of Fano· 1548 CE–1620 CE
- Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz· 1550 CE–1619 CE
- Shmuel Eidels (Chiddushei Halachot/Aggadot)· 1555 CE–1631 CE
- R. Yisrael Najara· 1555 CE–1625 CE
- Joshua Falk· 1555 CE–1614 CE
- R. Hayyim Shabbetai· 1556 CE–1647 CE
- Rabbi Meir Lublin· 1558 CE–1616 CE
- R. Yom Tov Tzahalon· 1559 CE–1638 CE
- Rabbi Abraham de Boton· 1560 CE–1605 CE
- Yoel ben Shmuel Sirkes· 1561 CE–1640 CE
- Isaiah Horowitz (Shlah HaKadosh)· 1565 CE–1630 CE
- R. Yosef di Trani· 1568 CE–1639 CE
- Abraham Azulai· 1570 CE–1643 CE
- R. Yehudah Aryeh of Modena (Leon de Modena)· 1571 CE–1648 CE
- Rabbi Yosef Escapa· 1572 CE–1662 CE
- Rabbi Yehoshua of Krakow· 1578 CE–1648 CE
- Yom Tov Lipmann Heller· 1578 CE–1654 CE
- Nathan Nota Spira· 1585 CE–1633 CE
Islamic world
Scientists
Christian world
Luminaries & Explorers world
Hindu world
Buddhist world
Rulers world
- Wanli Emperor· 1563 CE–1620 CE
- Jahangir· 1569 CE–1627 CE
- Shah Abbas I the Great· 1571 CE–1629 CE
- Mehmed III· 1566 CE–1603 CE
- Ahmed I· 1590 CE–1617 CE
- Powhatan (Wahunsenacawh)· 1547 CE–1618 CE
- Naresuan the Great· 1555 CE–1605 CE
- Tokugawa Ieyasu· 1543 CE–1616 CE
- Boris Godunov· 1552 CE–1605 CE
- Feodor I· 1557 CE–1598 CE
- Gustavus Adolphus· 1594 CE–1632 CE
- Osman II· 1604 CE–1622 CE
- Akbar the Great· 1542 CE–1605 CE
- Mustafa I· 1591 CE–1639 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.