Rav Yaakov Beirav

Early years

Rav Yaakov Beirav zt"l was born in 1474 in Moqueda, near Toledo in Castile, Spain, the son of Rav Moshe Beirav. As a young man he learned under Rav Yitzchok Abuhav.

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, he fled to Fez, in Morocco. The community there, numbering some five thousand families, chose him as its Rav when he was only eighteen. He then went to Tlemcen, the chief town of the Barbary states, where the community also chose him as its Rav. Avraham Gavison wrote that with Rav Yaakov's return the lamp of Torah had been lit again among Yisroel.

Torah and leadership

Before 1522 he was in Yerushalayim, but conditions there, social and economic, were so harsh that he did not stay long, and he went with his talmidim to Egypt. By 1527 he had become fairly well-to-do and was living in Damascus. In 1533 he was Rav in Cairo. Some years later he settled in Tzfas, then the largest Jewish community in Ottoman Syria, and became its chief Rav.

It was in Tzfas that Rav Yaakov conceived the bold idea that made him famous: the renewal of semichah (rabbinic ordination), which had been lost for more than a thousand years, and with it, in all likelihood, the re-establishment of the Sanhedrin. His model was the Sanhedrin of the Tannaim, whose members could trace their ordination back to Moshe Rabbeinu. He found his authority in the Rambam, who taught that if the sages of Eretz Yisroel agreed to ordain one of their number, he could ordain others. The Ramban and others had disagreed with this view, but the sages of Tzfas trusted Rav Yaakov and saw no halachic objection to his plan.

Rav Yaakov also had a practical concern. Anusim returning to Yiddishkeit needed atonement, and some rabbanim in Eretz Yisroel thought of applying to them the punishment of malkus (lashes), which only a Sanhedrin can assign. He wrote about this problem in his responsa.

The ordination of 1538

In 1538 twenty-five rabbanim gathered in Tzfas and ordained Rav Yaakov, giving him the right to ordain any number of others, who would then form a Sanhedrin. In a derashah in the shul in Tzfas he defended the legality of his ordination from the Gemara and explained the rights it conferred. When the news spread, most of the sages agreed, and the few who objected did not dare to oppose him and his followers.

Rav Yaakov ordained a small number of rabbanim, among them the Rav of Yerushalayim, Rav Levi ibn Chaviv, as well as Rav Yosef Karo, Rav Moshe of Trani and Rav Yosef Sagis. Rav Yosef Karo later ordained Rav Moshe Alshich, who ordained Rav Chaim Vital around 1590. In this way semichah could be traced through four generations.

Rav Yaakov ordained Rav Levi ibn Chaviv first, in order to win the goodwill of the Jews of Yerushalayim. Rav Levi had long been his opponent, and the two had disagreed on many halachic rulings and approbations. Rav Yaakov announced the ordination in kind terms and expected no objection, but he was mistaken. Rav Levi took it as an insult to his own dignity and to that of Yerushalayim that such a change had been made without consulting the sages of Yerushalayim. He wrote to the sages of Tzfas that their step was invalid and that it endangered rabbinic Judaism, since a Sanhedrin might use its authority to alter the calendar.

The disagreement became sharply personal, and this harmed the plan, for Rav Yaakov had many admirers but few close friends. His life was also in danger. The ordination had been presented to the Turkish authorities as the first step toward restoring a Jewish state, and since Rav Yaakov was wealthy, the officials would have had little mercy on him. He was forced to leave for Egypt for a time, but before going he ordained four rabbanim, so that ordination could continue in his absence. Among them were Rav Yosef Karo and Rav Moshe of Trani. Of the four, Rav Yosef Karo ordained another, Rav Moshe Alshich. By the time Rav Yaakov returned, Rav Levi's following had grown and he found his plan hopeless. His passing some years later ended a dispute that had divided most of the Torah scholars of the time.

Seforim and passing

Rav Yaakov wrote commentaries on the four sections of the Rambam and on topics in the Gemara, and responsa. Of his many works, only his Sheilos U'Teshuvos was published, in Venice in 1663, along with some short contributions to the works of others. The Amsterdam edition of the rabbinic Tanach (1724–28) also contains his notes on Yeshayahu and Yirmiyahu.

Rav Yaakov passed away in Tzfas on 1 Iyar 5306 (1546).