Jacob Saphir ( he, יעקב הלוי ספיר; 1822–1886) was a 19th-century writer,
ethnographer, researcher of Hebrew manuscripts, a
travel
Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...
er and
emissary of the rabbis of
Eastern European Jewish descent who settled in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
during his early life.
Background
Saphir was born in
Ashmyany in the Russian Empire (now
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
) and immigrated to
Ottoman Palestine as a child with his family in 1832. His parents, who were from the
Perushim community, settled in
Safed
Safed (known in Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elev ...
. Within a month his father died and a year later his mother died. At the age of 12, he witnessed the attack by the Arabs of the Galilee on the Jews of Safed in the lunar month of
Sivan
''Sivan'' (Hebrew: סִיוָן, Standard ''Sīvan'', Tiberian ''Sīwān''; from Akkadian ''simānu'', meaning "Season; time") is the ninth month of the civil year and the third month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a ...
, 1834. Due to the earthquake that occurred in Safed in 1837, he moved to Jerusalem.
In 1848, he was commissioned by the Jewish community of the latter city to travel through the southern countries to collect alms for the poor of Jerusalem. In 1854 he undertook a second tour to collect funds for the construction of the
Hurva Synagogue
The Hurva Synagogue ( he, בית הכנסת החורבה, translit: ''Beit ha-Knesset ha-Hurva'', lit. "The Ruin Synagogue"), also known as Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid ( he, חורבת רבי יהודה החסיד, "Ruin of Rabbi Judah the Piou ...
in the
Jewish Quarter, which led him in 1859 to
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...
,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
, and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
.
The result of this journey was his momentous ethnographic work, entitled ''`Even Sapir'', a travel diary and vignette of Jewish life and history in Yemen. Saphir published also ''Iggeret Teman'' (Wilna, 1868, consciously titled after
Rambam
Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah s ...
's letter of centuries earlier), a work on the appearance in Yemen of the
pseudo-Messiah Judah ben Shalom, and which was largely responsible for ending Judah ben Shalom's career. Saphir died in Jerusalem in 1886.
Saphir was the first Jewish researcher to recognize the significance of the
Cairo geniza
The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the ''genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, ...
, as well as the first to publicize the existence of the
Midrash ha-Gadol
Midrash HaGadol or The Great Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש הגדול) is a work of aggaddic midrash, expanding on the narratives of the Pentateuch, which was written by Rabbi David Adani of Yemen (14th century).
Its contents were compiled from t ...
, both later studied with great panache by
Solomon Schechter.
Sapir also did extensive research and writings on
Yanover,
Israeli
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew, a language
* ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008
* Guni Israeli (b ...
and
Greek etrog
Etrog ( he, אֶתְרוֹג, plural: '; Ashkenazi Hebrew: ', plural: ') is the yellow citron or ''Citrus medica'' used by Jews during the week-long holiday of Sukkot as one of the four species. Together with the ''lulav'', ''hadass'', and '' a ...
s. He dedicated a collection of poetry to
Sir Moses and
Lady Montefiore.
[ Hirschfeld, Hartwig; Montefiore Library. Jews' College. (1904). Descriptive catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. of the Montefiore Library. London:Macmillan. p. 121]
Internet Archive website
Retrieved 24 April 2018.
In the years 1833–1885, Saphir helped print the book ''Ḥemdat Yamim'' (reprinted Jerusalem 1977) by the arch-poet of Yemen, R.
Shalom Shabazi, and even added an introduction to it.
See also
*
Al-Ousta Codex
''Jewish Encyclopedia'' bibliography
*
Fuenn, ''Keneset Yisrael,'' pp. 557–558;
*idem, in ''
Ha-Karmel,'' vi, Wilna, 1866;
*
Geiger, Abraham, in ''Jüd. Zeit.'' xi.263-270.
External links
Jewish Encyclopedia article on Jacob Saphirwritten by
Isidore Singer &
Schulim Ochser.
Publications by Jacob SaphirRabbi Jacob Levi Saphir & his Voyage to Australia
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saphir, Jacob
1822 births
1886 deaths
Jews in Ottoman Palestine
19th-century rabbis from the Ottoman Empire
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire
Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives
19th-century male writers
Lithuanian Jews
Jewish explorers
19th-century travelers
Jewish Yemeni history
Yemen researchers
Researchers of Yemenite Jewry
People from Ashmyany
Jewish anthropologists
Jewish Indonesian history