Page 27 - HaMizrachi Purim Australia 5781

ZIONIST LEADERS THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND

OUR SERIES ON LEADERS WHO HAVE SHAPED ZIONISM
CONTINUES WITH SOME OF ZIONISM’S EARLIEST INFLUENCERS
Rabbi Levi Ibn Chaviv

Defender of Yerushalayim

orn in Spain in 1483, Rabbi Levi Israel. Most of them settled in Tzfat, and foremost from Yerushalayim. The
Ibn Chaviv (also known as the away from the Muslim and Christian project was halted.
BMaharal Chaviv or by his acro- threat in Yerushalayim. The Jews of Rabbi Levi also wrote extensively on the
nym, the Maharlbach) was the son of Yerushalayim were few and impov- rejuvenated Mitzvot HaTluyot BaAretz,
Rabbi Ya’akov Ibn Chaviv, author of the erished, while Tzfat was flourishing mitzvot which were not kept in exile but
aggadic commentary Ein Ya’akov. spiritually and financially in the height were suddenly relevant in Israel. His
of its “Golden Era.” Although he could
From the age of nine, Rabbi Levi led have stayed in Tzfat, a breeding ground halachic responsa were compiled into
a rather nomadic life. His family was the Maharlbach Responsa, a fundamen-
expelled from Spain in 1492 and they for the greatest rabbis and leaders of tal source in Mitzvot HaTluyot BaAretz.
the time, Rabbi Levi chose to move to
fled to Portugal, from where they were Another famous responsa of his
expelled once more in 1498. They then Yerushalayim, despite the difficult con- addresses the halachot of Purim
ditions, decrying the abandonment of
moved to Saloniki, where Rabbi Levi Meshulash, a rare occurrence when
studied under his father’s auspices and the Holy City. Shushan Purim falls out on Shabbat
learned to become a sofer stam. It was He wrote at length encouraging Jews (like this year). Such a Purim occurred
there that Rabbi Ya’akov passed away to live there and criticizing the Jews of when Rabbi Levi served as Chief Rabbi
and Rabbi Levi completed his father’s Tzfat for forgetting the holy city. When of Yerushalayim. At the time, the
unfinished manuscript of the Ein a plague broke out in Yerushalayim, Jews didn’t know what to do. Having
Ya’akov. spreading quickly because of cramped returned from exile, they had no tra-
conditions, Rabbi Levi remained in the
In 1513, Rabbi Levi moved to Israel for city while many families fled. dition regarding when the mitzvot of
a short period. Unable to earn a living, Purim should be performed in such a
he returned to Saloniki, then moved to One of his most famous rulings is his circumstance. Rabbi Levi taught them
Damascus, and Aleppo, all the while opposition to renewing semicha, hala- the answers.
determined to return to the Holy Land. chic rabbinic ordination. According to He also wrote a commentary on the
the Rambam, if all of the rabbis and
In 1525, Rabbi Levi moved to Tzfat, leaders of Israel agree to it, semicha as Rambam’s laws of Kiddush HaChodesh.
where he spent a short amount of time was performed in the times of the Mik- Rabbi Levi Ibn Chaviv passed away in
before finally settling in Yerushalayim, dash can be renewed. In 1538, when the Yerushalayim in 1545. After his passing,
where it didn’t take long before he was rabbis of Tzfat got together to renew the the Jewish community in Yerushalayim,
appointed chief rabbi of the city. He had semicha, Rabbi Levi was not consulted. which he had worked so hard to culti-
a burning passion for Yerushalayim and Outraged they could consider such a vate, dwindled, and many moved away.
spent his life building and defending thing without taking counsel with the Nevertheless, his legacy as a defender
the holy city. Rabbi of Yerushalayim, Rabbi Levi of Yerushalayim as the center of Torah
After the Spanish expulsion, many Jews wrote to them to declare his objection, and Jewish life, and his mesirut toward
came directly or indirectly to settle in claiming semicha needed to come first the holy city, remains. 

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