Najar

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NAJAR

NAJAR (Nadjar ), prominent rabbinical family of Spanish refugees in *Algeria and *Tunis. r. maimon najar (14th and early 15th century) left Majorca for Algeria in 1395. He settled in *Constantine, serving as dayyan. Author of Kunteres ha-Minhagot on local practices, he corresponded with Simeon b. Ẓemaḥ *Duran on religious matters. His brother mordecai went to Tunis in 1391 because of persecutions in *Spain; Mordecai later spent some time in Bougie, but returned to Majorca where, under duress, he had accepted Christianity. He finally settled in Algiers in 1435. nathan ben maimon (15th century) was rabbi in Constantine and corresponded with Solomon b. Simeon Duran. judah ben jacob (d. 1830), talmudist, author, and dayyan in Tunis, wrote the following works: Limmudei ha-Shem (Leghorn, 1787), on hermeneutics in the Talmud; Alfei Yehudah (Leghorn, 1794), a commentary on Shevuot; Shevet Yehudah (Leghorn, 1801), a commentary on the Mekhilta; Simḥat Yehudah (Pisa, 1816), on Keritot, Soferim, and Semaḥot; Hayyei Yehudah (Pisa, 1816), on Gerim, Avadim, and Kuttim; and Oholei Yehudah (Leghorn, 1823), on the Sifrei. david (early 19th century) was a rabbi in Tunis and wrote Ẓemaḥ David, which was published posthumously with Judah Cohen *Tanuji's Admat Yehudah (Leghorn, 1828) and contains novellae on tractates of the Talmud and on parts of Maimonides' Yad ha-Ḥazakah.

bibliography:

D. Cazès, Notes Bibliographiques… (1893), s.v.; I. Epstein, 'Responsa' of… Rabbi Simon b. Ẓemaḥ Duran… (1930, 19682), 94–96; A.M. Hershman, Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet and his Times (1943), 53, 185.