In 1741, Attar with a group of 30, including Jews from Morocco and young rabbis from Italy, set sail from Leghorn. Moses Franco and Abraham Ishmael Sangvinetti describe the voyage in their writings. The group reached Acre in the late summer. Hearing of the epidemics raging in Jaffa and Jerusalem, ibn Attar decided to establish a temporary yeshivah in Acre which continued for nearly a year. He then decided to move to Peki'in, attributing the deaths of two of his disciples to the fact that Acre, according to the Talmud, was not within the historic boundaries of Erez Israel. During a visit to Tiberias R. Hayyim Abulafia urged him to reestablish his school there, but when the epidemic subsided, the group set out for Jerusalem. There he established the Midrash Keneset Israel Yeshivah, which had one division for advanced and one for young scholars. He acted as head of the former division, which did not study the Talmud with the commentaries, but concentrated on the codes and their connection with the talmudic sources. Special attention was paid to reconciling the decisions of Maimonides with the Talmud. The students indulged in ascetic practices, spending their nights in supplication and prayer for the redemption and peace of Diaspora Jewry. The group also used to prostrate themselves in prayer on holy graves in supplication for the Jewish community. The Chidah, who studied at the "Midrash," describes it in reverential terms, and in his works he gives details of his customs as well as sermons and explanations that he heard from him. He passed on approximately a year after settling in Jerusalem.

ג: ויקרא. קנו, קנט-קעג דף. בטופס שראינו חסר השער. דף קנט ואילך: שיר השירים. בראשה ובסופה פרט של תקנ"א.