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.

''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 Saphir
written 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

Background

See also

''Jewish Encyclopedia'' bibliography

External links

References