Alfandari, Aaron ben Moses

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ALFANDARI, AARON BEN MOSES

ALFANDARI, AARON BEN MOSES (1690?–1774), rabbi and author. He taught at the yeshivah of Smyrna, where he served as dayyan. About 1757 he settled in Hebron where he was appointed chief rabbi. He wrote Yad Aharon, an attempt to bring Ḥayyim *Benveniste's Keneset ha-Gedolah up to date by including later decisions as well as sources not available to Benveniste. He also added his own decisions, as well as a work on the methodology of the Talmud. The volume on Oraḥ Ḥayyim was published in Smyrna in 1735; on Even ha-Ezer in two volumes in 1756–66. The one to Yoreh De'ah and the uncompleted manuscript on Ḥoshen Mishpat were destroyed in the great Smyrna fire of 1743. He also wrote Mirkevet ha-Mishneh, a commentary on Maimonides' Yad Ḥazakah; most of it was destroyed in the same fire and only the first part was published (1755).

bibliography:

Azulai, 1 (1852), 16 no. 119, s.v. Aharon Alfandari; M. Benayahu, Rabbi Ḥ.Y.D. Azulai (Heb., 1959), 355; Michael, Or, no. 302.

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