Shibbolei HaLeketשבלי הלקט
Rome
צא
Tzidkiyah ben Avraham (the Anav)
Tzidkiyah ben Avraham (the Anav)
1210 CE–1280 CE · Rishonim · Rome
R. Tzidkiyah ben Avraham HaRofeh (c. 1210-1280) of Rome was a leading Italian Rishon and the author of Shibbolei HaLeket — the foundational compendium of Italian-Roman Jewish minhag and halacha. The work surveys Tannaitic and Amoraic sources together with the rulings of Geonim, Rashi, and the Tosafists, organizing them into a coherent practical guide for Italian Jewish life. Tzidkiyah was a member of the Anav family — one of the founding Roman Jewish dynasties dating back to the late Roman empire — and likely served as a community physician (hence HaRofeh).
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Stop 1 of 11210–1280Died
RomeרומאItaly
What they did here
Born into the distinguished Anav family of Rome, where he lived and — after study abroad — compiled the Shibbolei HaLeket, his influential digest of the laws of prayer, Shabbat, blessings and the festivals. He corresponded with Meir of Rothenburg and died in Rome around 1280.
About Rome
# Rome In the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, Rome lay within the Papal States, the territorial domain of the Catholic Church, though its temporal glory as an empire had long faded. The city sprawled across its famous hills along the Tiber River, a landscape of crumbling ancient monuments, medieval fortifications, and Romanesque churches that dominated the skyline. The Jewish community of Rome was among Europe's most ancient, tracing roots to the second century BCE, and it flourished in a precarious but resilient position under papal authority; while confined to restricted quarters and subject to discriminatory laws, Roman Jews maintained a sophisticated intellectual and commercial life, with Hebrew scholarship and biblical commentary flourishing despite—or perhaps because of—the community's isolation. The Jewish quarter itself, densely packed and vibrant, became a center of learning where skilled scribes copied manuscripts and rabbinical discussions drew on centuries of local tradition. What made Rome extraordinary for Torah study was not merely its learned scholars but the tangible presence of antiquity itself: the community lived amid the ruins of pagan temples and Roman law, giving their interpretations of Jewish law a unique resonance, as if they were rebuilding Jewish civilization in the very streets where Roman power had once reigned supreme.
In Rome at the same time
Across the traditions, in Rome at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Tzidkiyah ben Avraham (the Anav)’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Tzidkiyah ben Avraham (the Anav)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.