Yom Tov Algazi

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Grave of Rabbi Algazi on Olive Mt.

Yom Tov Algazi (known as the Maharit Algazi; 1727, Izmir – 1802, Jerusalem), the son of

Beit El and served as Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and the rest of the country from 1777 until his death.[1][2]

He often traveled to Europe to solicit funds for the Jerusalem community and was warmly welcomed by Hungarian rabbis Moses Sofer and Akiva Eiger.[1] In 1773 he visited Bordeaux, France.[3]

When rumors spread that the Jews of Jerusalem were planning to aid

Wailing Wall.[4][5] Together with Rabbi Mordechai Meyuchas, Algazi organised a Jewish contingent to reinforce the city's defenses.[6]

The names of his published works are: Get Mekushar (1767), Shemot Yom Tov and Hilkhot Yom Tov (1794), Kedushat Yom Tov (1843).[2]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-971645-6
    . Besides his rabbinical duties, Yom Tov Algazi was the head of Beit El for the last twenty-five years of his life, to 1802.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-14996-0
    . From 1777 until his death in 1802, he served as rav ha-kollel of Jerusalem.
  3. ISBN 978-0-8047-8965-3
    . When Yom Tov Algazi and Jacob Le-Beith Hazan visited Bordeaux in 1773, they received 1,500 livres for Jerusalem and 200 livres for travel and food.
  4. ISBN 978-0-89906-498-7
    . The great leader of Jewish Jerusalem of that time, Rabbi Yom Tov Algazi, and his court, publicly offered prayers on behalf of the Turks and voiced great fears about a Napoleonic conquest.
  5. ^ The Queens College Journal of Jewish Studies. Vol. 2–5. New York, N.Y.: Queens College Center for Jewish Studies. 2000. p. 122. The Arabs of Jerusalem decided to kill all of the city's Jewish residents as soon as Napoleon's soldiers reached the vicinity of the city. An informer reported this plan to the Rishon L'zion, Jerusalem's chief rabbi, Rabbi Yomtov Algazi, and to his assistant, Rabbi Mordecai Meyuhas (who would later become the Rishon L'zion). These two rabbinical leaders immediately assembled all of Jerusalem's Jews - men, women, and children - at the Wailing (Western) Wall in order to demonstrate their loyalty to the Ottoman Empire and in order to offer prayers for the defense of Jerusalem.
  6. ISBN 978-0-87480-391-4
    . To prove their loyalty, Chief Rabbi Yom Tov Algazi and Rabbi Mordecai Joseph Meyuhas directed Jerusalem's Jews to make a new rampart and bastion around the citadel. The respected 61-year-old Meyuhas "stood and dug with spade in hand and he labored with the people.
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