Jacob Saphir

19th C. Hebrew researcher, ethnographer, and emissary

Jacob Saphir

יעקב הלוי ספיר

Jacob Saphir

Born| 1822

Ashmyany, Russian Empire (now Belarus)

Died| 1886

Jerusalem, Ottoman Palestine

Nationality| Ottoman Palestine
Occupations|

* Writer
* Ethnographer
* Researcher

Known for|

* Even Sapir
* Research on the Cairo Geniza
* Discovering the Midrash ha-Gadol

Notable work|

* Even Sapir
* Iggeret Teman

Jacob Saphir (Hebrew: יעקב הלוי ספיר, romanized: Yankev HaLeyvy Sapir; 1822–1886), often pronounced Yaakov Sapir, was a 19th-century writer, ethnographer, researcher of Hebrew manuscripts, a traveler and emissary of the rabbis of Eastern European Jewish descent who settled in Jerusalem during his early life.

## Background

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Saphir was born in Ashmyany in the Russian Empire (now Belarus) and immigrated to Ottoman Palestine as a child with his family in 1832. His parents, who were from the Perushim community, settled in Safed. Within a year his father died and a month later his mother died. At the age of 12, he witnessed the attack by the Arabs of the Galilee on the Jews of Safed in the lunar month of Sivan, 1834. He moved to Jerusalem in 1836.

In 1848, he was commissioned by the Jewish community of the latter city to travel through the southern countries to collect alms for the poor of Jerusalem. In 1854 he undertook a second tour to collect funds for the construction of the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter, which led him in 1859 to Yemen, British India, Egypt, and Australia.

The result of this journey was his momentous ethnographic work, entitled `Even Sapir,[1] a travel diary and vignette of Jewish life and history in Yemen. Saphir published also Iggeret Teman (Epistle to Yemen) (Wilna, 1868, consciously titled after Rambam's letter of the same name from centuries earlier), a work on the appearance in Yemen of the pseudo-Messiah Judah ben Shalom, and which was largely responsible for ending Judah ben Shalom's career. Saphir died in Jerusalem in 1886.

Saphir was the first Jewish researcher to recognize the significance of the Cairo geniza, as well as the first to publicize the existence of the Midrash ha-Gadol, both later studied with great panache by Solomon Schechter.

Sapir also did extensive research and writings on Yanover, Israeli and Greek etrogs. He dedicated a collection of poetry to Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore.[2]

In the years 1833–1885, Saphir helped print the book Ḥemdat Yamim (reprinted Jerusalem 1977) by the arch-poet of Yemen, R. Shalom Shabazi, and even added an introduction to it.

## See also

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* Al-Ousta Codex

## Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

[edit]

* Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 557–558
* idem, in Ha-Karmel, vi, Wilna, 1866
* Geiger, Abraham, in Jüd. Zeit. xi.263–270

## References

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1. ^ Jacob Saphir, Even Sapir (vol. 1 & 2) Lyck 1866 (Hebrew). [Yesovev ʼAdmat Ḥam (masaʼ Misrayim) Yam Suf, Ḥadre Teman, Mizraḥ Hodu kulo, ʼErets ha-ḥadashah ʼOsṭralya u-teshuvato ha-ramatah Yėrushalayim. ha-ʼAratsot ʼasher sovavti ṿe-tarti ... matsav ṿe-toʼ ar aḥenu ... ṿeha-mosaʻot ʼotam me-az ʻad ha-yom, ṿe-nilṿah ʼelehem sipurim ṿe-ʻinyanim toranim ṿa-ḥaḳirot ṿe-heʻarot ... ṿe-tsiyune ṿe-reshimot matsevot ʻatiḳot ... ṿe-shire ḳodesh ... / [meʼet] Yaʻaḳov Sapir ha-Leṿi']; Second edition published in Mainz in 1874
2. ^ Hirschfeld, Hartwig; Montefiore Library. Jews' College. (1904). Descriptive catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. of the Montefiore Library. London:Macmillan. p. 121. Internet Archive website Retrieved 24 April 2018.

* This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "SAPHIR, JACOB (known also as Eben Sappir)". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

## External links

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* Jewish Encyclopedia article on Jacob Saphir written by Isidore Singer & Schulim Ochser.
* Publications by Jacob Saphir
* Rabbi Jacob Levi Saphir & his Voyage to Australia

Authority control databases

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