Amigo, Abraham
AMIGO, ABRAHAM
AMIGO, ABRAHAM (c. 1610/15–c. 1683), rabbi and author. Amigo was born in Constantinople, or Adrianople – where he was a pupil of Elijah Obadiah. He immigrated to Ereẓ Israel about 1655, settled in Jerusalem, and was a member of the bet midrash of Jacob *Ḥagiz. The rabbis of Egypt and Turkey referred questions to him and his opinion was decisive. He also studied Kabbalah and joined the circle of Jacob b. Ḥayyim Ẓemaḥ. Among his disciples in Jerusalem were David ha-Kohen Rapaport, author of Da'at Kedoshim, and Ḥayyim Abulafia the Younger. Amigo was also a distinguished preacher and moralist and his homilies were transmitted by his pupils even after his death. He opposed Shabbetai Ẓevi and strove to have him banished. The rabbis of Constantinople wanted to appoint him as one of the "four great men in Israel" who were to go to Gaza to investigate *Nathan of Gaza. His works are Peri Hadash, on the Shulḥan Arukh Oraḥ Ḥayyim, from the laws of Passover to the end; and responsa, decisions, and novellae on the Talmud, mentioned by Ḥayyim Joseph David *Azulai (part now in the Benayahu Collection). Some of his responsa were printed in the work of his colleague Samuel Garmison, Mishpetei Ẓedek (nos. 78, 99), and in Naharot Dammesek by Solomon Camondo (Ḥm, no. 13).
bibliography:
M. Benayahu, in: Sinai, 17 (1945), 309–13.