Mahari Berav

R. Yaakov Berav (1474-1546) was one of the dominant Sephardic figures of the early-modern Mediterranean. Born in Maqueda, Castile, he was exiled in 1492 (age 18), reached Fes via Portugal where he served as Chief Rabbi from 1493 to 1505, then sojourned in Algiers, Egypt, and Damascus before settling in Tzfat around 1533.

In Tzfat he became the head of the rabbinic academy and the senior halachist of his generation. In 1538 he launched the famous attempt to renew classical semicha (rabbinic ordination) in Tzfat — a step many understood as preparation for renewing the Sanhedrin in advance of the messianic age. The semicha controversy with R. Levi ibn Chabib (Jerusalem) prevented broad acceptance, but Berav succeeded in ordaining R. Yosef Karo, R. Moshe Cordovero (in some accounts), and R. Yosef Sagis, transmitting the chain forward.