Gagin:

By: M. Franco , M. Seligsohn , Gotthard Deutsch

Rabbinical family of Castilian origin which emigrated to Morocco in 1492, and in the eight eenth century to Palestine. The oldest known member of this family is Ḥayyim Gagin, who about 1492 left Castile and settled in Morocco. He was the author of "'Eẓ Ḥayyim," in which work he recounts his dissensions from his rabbinical contemporaries. The following are the more important members living in the nineteenth and present centuries:

Abraham Gagin:

Son of Solomon Moses Hai Gagin; now living in Jerusalem. With his brother Isaac he is joint author of "El Cuento Maravilloso" (Jerusalem, 1886), a collection of moral stories in Judæo-Spanish, with rabbinic characters.

M. Fr. Ḥayyim Abraham Gagin:

Chief rabbi of Jerusalem; died in that city May 10, 1848. He wrote: "Minḥah Ṭehorah," novellæ on the treatise Menaḥot (Salonica, 1825); "Ḥuḳe Ḥayyim," responsa (Jerusalem, 1842). He edited and wrote the prefaces to "Sefer ha-Taḳkanot" ( ib. 1842); the "Dibre Shalom" of R. A. Mizraḥi ( ib. 1843); the "Ḳedushat Yom-Ṭob" of Yom-Ṭob Algazi ( ib. 1843); "Ḳonṭres Emet me-Ereẓ Tiẓmaḥ," a defense, by Z. H. Lehren of Amsterdam, of the Amsterdam committee at Jerusalem against charges of mismanagement in the distribution of the "halukkah" (Amsterdam).

Ḥayyim Palagi wrote a dirge on Gagin's death.

M. Sel. Isaac Gagin:

Son of Solomon Moses Hai Gagin; now residing in Jerusalem. Joint author with his brother Abraham Gagin of "El Cuento Maravilloso."

Solomon Moses Hai Gagin (known also under his initials ):

Son of Ḥayyim Abraham Gagin; he lived at Jerusalem in the middle of the nineteenth century. He published two Hebrew works: (1) "Yismaḥ Leb," responsa, and (2) "Samaḥ Libbi," sermons (Ḥazan, "Ha-Ma'alot li-Shelomoh, p. 32).

D. M. Fr.