Ka?in, Judah ben Yom Tov
KA?IN, JUDAH BEN YOM TOV
KA?IN, JUDAH BEN YOM TOV (1708–1783), rabbi and halakhic authority of *Aleppo, whose rabbinical office he filled for many years. Ka?in was involved in the controversy which broke out among the rabbis of Aleppo over the imposition of the authority of the local rabbis on the "Francos" (Jewish merchants of Western European origin who arrived in Aleppo during the late 17th century). The chief rabbi Raphael Solomon *Laniado demanded that the local customs be imposed on them, while the rabbis of Aleppo, led by Ka?in, were opposed to this. During his last years he wrote Ma?aneh Yehudah (Leghorn, 1803), which includes his arguments concerning this controversy and the approbations of the rabbis of Aleppo and *Jerusalem. It appears that with the deaths of Laniado and Ka?in at the end of the 18th century the dispute subsided. Ka?in also wrote responsa, which form the first part of the work Ro'ei Yisrael (1904), and sermons, Ve-Zot li-Yhudah (still in Ms.).
bibliography:
M.D. Gaon, Yehudei ha-Mizra? be-Ere? Yisrael, 2 (1937), 630; D.Z. Laniado, Li-Kedoshim Asher ba-Are?, 1 (1952), 32; A. Lutzky, in: Zion, 6 (1940/41), 73–79.
[Abraham David]