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A discourse in the form of a dialogue on religious questions by R. Israel Moses ben Eliezer Hazan. The title page notes that initially the work was concealed among the author’s Nezah Yisrael and its name was called Manna. It remained in manuscript by the author, “who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling down” (Numbers 24:4). It was brought to press with the approval of the author. It is dated, “For you, Lord, will bless the righteous úáøê (622 = 1862); with favor you will cover him as with a shield” (Psalms 5:13). At the back of the volume are letters (approbations) in Italian from Professor C. Luca Ceccotti and Dottor (sic) F. Filippo Maria Giudi. She’erit ha-Nahalah is exceptionally rare, not appearing in the catalogues of the major collections in the United States nor is it recorded in the Hebrew Bibliographic Project. There is, however, a copy in the JNUL in Israel. It is listed as the second title printed in Alexandria, one of only a handful printed in tat location.
R. Israel Moses ben Eliezer Hazan was born in Izmir in Smyrna 1808 and died in Beirut Oct., 1862. He was taken by his father to Jerusalem (1811), where he was educated under his grandfather, R. Joseph ben Hayyim Hazan. In 1840 he became a member of a rabbinical college; in 1848 he was appointed meshullah (messenger). While at Rome he was elected chief rabbi. In 1852 he resigned this office for the rabbinate of Corfu, and in 1857 he was called to the rabbinate of Alexandria. In 1862 he went to Jaffa; but, being in ill health, he removed to Beirut, where he died. He was buried in Sidon. In Rome and in Corfu he was held in high esteem, and the poet Ludwig August Frankl, who saw him in Corfu (1856), speaks in glowing terms of his venerable personality. While a champion of Orthodoxy, he possessed sufficient independence of mind to protest against the superstitious practises customary among the Jews of Rome, who insisted on washing corpses with warm water, and who would not allow a clock in the yard of the synagogue. He wrote a letter condemning the reforms advocated in the Brunswick rabbinical conference (published in the collection Kin'at Ziyyon, Amsterdam, 1846). His other published works, in addition to She’erit ha-Nahalah are Nahalah le-Yisrael, a collection of decisions in an inheritance case (Vienna, 1851; Alexandria, 1862); Kontres Kedushat Yom-Tov Sheni, an argument in favor of retaining the second holy days (ib. 1855); Divre Shalom ve-Emet, a reply (in the form of an address to the Israelites of Great Britain by a Levite) to a Reform pamphlet (Hebrew and English, London, 1856); Iyye ha-Yam, responsa of the Geonim, with his notes (Leghorn, 1864); Kerak shel Romi, responsa (ib. 1876). Other responsa, with homilies and an apology for the kabalah, remain in manuscript. |
