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Sephardic Rishon LeTzion

Sephardic Rishon LeTzion

1727 CE–1802 CE · Acharonim · Izmir (Smyrna)

R. Yom Tov Algazi (1727-1802) was the Rishon LeTzion (Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael) from 1772 until his death. Born in Izmir to a Salonikan-Italian rabbinic family, he made aliyah to Jerusalem as a young scholar and rose through the Sephardic establishment. His Simchat Yom Tov responsa, Kedushat Yom Tov on Rambam, Hilchot Yom Tov on Ramban, and Get Mekushar on the laws of divorce are foundational Jerusalem-Sephardic sources. He sent the great Chida (R. Chaim Yosef David Azulai) on his second European emissary journey and was a key sponsor of the Ottoman-era Jerusalem yishuv.

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Stop 1 of 21727–1745Born, Studied

Izmir (Smyrna)Western Anatolia — major Sephardic port

What they did here

Born in Izmir to R. Yisrael Algazi, a Salonikan-rooted scholar.

Izmir (Smyrna) in this era

Izmir from the 17th through 19th centuries was a major Sephardic halachic and commercial center, serving as the principal Ottoman port of Levantine trade with Western Europe. Spanish-exile families (Palaggi, Yedid, Hazan, Benveniste) anchored the rabbinate. R. Chaim Benveniste (Knesset HaGedolah, Chief Rabbi 1660-1673), R. Eliyahu HaCohen (Shevet Musar, fled Aleppo for Izmir), R. Hayyim Palaggi (Chief Rabbi 1855-1868, with over 70 books to his name), and dozens of major poskim made Izmir one of the most-cited Sephardic centers of acharonic responsa. The community was also the epicenter of the catastrophic Sabbatean movement: Sabbatai Zvi (1626-1676) was born and active here. The Izmir community produced its own Hebrew printing presses from the 17th century, publishing major Sephardic responsa and homiletics.

About Izmir (Smyrna)

Izmir (historically Smyrna), a port city on the Aegean coast of western Anatolia, became one of the foremost Sephardic Jewish centers of the Ottoman Empire after waves of settlement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Its rabbinate produced major halachic authorities, including Rabbi Chaim Benveniste, author of the Kenesset HaGedolah, who led the community in the seventeenth century, and Rabbi Chaim Palagi (1788-1868), a prolific posek who became chief rabbi of the city. Izmir was also the birthplace of Shabbetai Tzvi.

In Izmir (Smyrna) at the same time

Shevet Musar, Chaim Abulafia

See other sages who lived in Izmir (Smyrna)→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Sephardic Rishon LeTzion’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

In the same tradition

Shevet Musar, Chaim Abulafia, Rashash, Chida

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Sephardic Rishon LeTzion’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Jewish world

Works

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