Carmi, Joseph Jedidiah

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CARMI, JOSEPH JEDIDIAH

CARMI, JOSEPH JEDIDIAH (c. 1590–?), Italian rabbi and liturgical poet. Carmi was brought to Modena as a child before the Jews had been banished from the Duchy of Milan in 1597. He began to teach in Modena in 1612, and in 1623 was appointed ḥazzan of the private synagogue of the Usiglio family there. Encouraged by the example of his brother-in-law, Aaron Berechiah of *Modena, Carmi composed prayers in which the influence of the Kabbalah is apparent, to be recited by the Shomerim la-Boker ("association for vigils") of this synagogue. These were published with brief glosses by the author in Kenaf Renanim (Venice, 1626). His responsa are preserved in manuscript (C. Bernheimer, Catalogue … Livourne (1914), no. 19).

bibliography:

Zunz, Gesch, 239; Zunz, Lit Poesie, 423–4; Steinschneider, Cat Bod, 148, no. 5892; L. Blau, Leo Modenas briefe und Schriftstuecke (1906), 135–7; Fuenn (ed.), Knesset, 505; Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 404–5; Leone (Judah of) Modena, She'elot u-Teshuvot Ziknei Yehudah, ed. by Sh. Simonson (1956).

[Abraham Meir Habermann]