Rishon Le-Zion
RISHON LE-ZION
RISHON LE-ZION (Heb. ???????? ?????????; "first of Zion"), a title given to the Sephardi head of the rabbis of Israel. His seat is in Jerusalem. The first scholar to be given the title was apparently Moses b. Jonathan *Galante (1620–89) when he and the other scholars of Jerusalem decided that their leader should bear the modest title of rishon le-Zion, mentioned in Isaiah (41:27), and not rabbi or av bet din. Until 1840 the authority of the *?akham bashi ("chief rabbi") in Constantinople extended over all the communities of the Ottoman Empire, including Ere? Israel. From that year until 1920, the rishon le-Zion was granted the additional title of ?akham bashi for Ere? Israel by the Ottoman government. The first to bear this double title was ?ayyim Abraham *Gagin. However, the grant of this additional title was not always made immediately on appointment.
bibliography:
Luncz, in: Yerushalayim, 4 (1892), 210–7: Frumkin-Rivlin, 2 (1928), 57f.; Gaon, in: Mizra? u-Ma'arav, 2 (1928), 29–36; Elmaleh, in: Talpioth, 9 (1964), 364–6; idem, Ha-Rishonim le-?iyyon (1970); Hirschberg, in: Yad Yosef Yi??ak Rivlin (1964), 94–101.
