Elijah ben Abraham Benamozegh

His parents, Abraham and Clara, were originally from Fez, Morocco. His father, who was seventy-one years old when Elijah was born, died when the child was three. Under the guidance of his maternal uncle, Judah Coriat, Elijah undertook traditional Jewish biblical and rabbinic studies; at a very early age he also began the study of Kabbala, especially the Zohar.

Forced to enter the world of business to earn a living, Benamozegh worked in a counting house for several years, but left it to pursue his Jewish studies at the Beth Israel Franco yeshiva. He also acquired, mostly through self-teaching, a good knowledge of English, French (which he particularly mastered), Latin authors, Greek philosophers, and European thought. He began his rabbinical career in 1847 as assistant rabbi of the Livorno community and subsequently was appointed its rabbi. From then on he devoted himself to preaching, teaching theology in the local rabbinical school, writing, and publishing and editing Jewish books.

Among the works printed by Benamozegh’s publishing house were the two-volume responsa collection Toqpo shel Yosef by Joseph Elmaleh (1854–55); the responsa Berit Avot of Abraham Coriat, his maternal grandfather (1862); an early edition of the liturgical poetry (Heb. piyyuṭim) of the Syrian rabbi Mordechai Abbadi (1864); the Zikhron Yerushalayim of the chief rabbi of *Tripoli, Elijah Bekhor Ḥazzan (1874), followed by his Taʿalumot Lev (1879); and the Sefer Ot Berit Qodesh of Joseph Knafo, a kabbalistic work (1884). After Benamozegh’s death, his publishing firm was continued by his only surviving son, Emmanuel (a lawyer by profession), until it was absorbed by the Belforte publishing house in 1925.

Elijah Benamozegh was, in addition, a prolific author in his own right. His many books on Jewish history and ethics in Hebrew, French, and Italian expounded a balanced but forceful defense of the uniqueness of Judaism among the religions. All his works reveal extensive and profound knowledge of the Jewish sources, which he used also to defend the value of the Kabbala within Judaism. In fact he collaborated in compiling the monumental edition of the Zohar that was published in five volumes in Livorno in 1851 and subsequently went through many editions. Then in 1855 he published Eymat Mafgiʿa (Fear of the Gnat/Adversary [the words are homonyms]), a refutation of the attacks on the Kabbala by the Venetian rabbi Judah Aryeh Modena (1571–1648). His dispute with Rabbi Samuel David Luzzatto on the same subject is famous, and he later published their correspondence in his book Ṭaʿam la-Shad (Common Sense for SD [Samuel David]; Livorno, 1863).

Benamozegh’s method of biblical interpretation, utilizing sources from philology, archaeology, and the natural sciences, is represented by his famous commentary Em la-Miqraʾ (Matrix of Scripture; 1862–65). When the book was harshly criticized by the rabbis of Aleppo and Jerusalem because of its departures from orthodoxy, Benamozegh replied with his Ṣari Gilʿad (Balm of Gilead), arguing that Judaism had no choice but to harmonize its traditional sources and the secular sciences if it was to meet the new challenges of modern times. He reiterated this position in his extensive correspondence, which included important non-Jewish figures like Giuseppe Mazzini, Auguste Renan, Adolphe Franck, and Aimé Pallière. The latter edited and published Israël et l’humanité (Paris, 1914; Eng. trans. 1995), left unfinished at the time of Benamozegh’s death and regarded as the final synthesis of his religious thought.

By Laura Bonifacio Roumani

Bibliography

Guetta, Alessandro. Philosophie et cabbale: Essai sur la pensée d’Elie Benamozegh (Paris and Montreal: Editions l’Harmattan, 1998).

Luria, Maxwell (ed.). Elijah Benamozegh: Israel and Humanity (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1995).

Toaff, Alfredo Sabato (ed.). Scritti scelti. Con l’autobiografia dell’autore e la prefazione di Yoseph Colombo (Rome: La Rassegna mensile d’Israel, 1955).

https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/אליהו_בן-אמוזג

הרב אליהו בן אמוזג נולד במוגדור, מרוקו לאביו אברהם בן שם טוב (בהיותו בגיל 71) ולאימו קלרה בת הרב אברהם קוריאט אביו אברהם שהיה חשוך ילדים עד גיל 70 נישא בגיל זה לקלרה, לאחר שקיבל את הסכמת אשתו הראשונה לכך.

כאשר היה בגיל שלוש ברחה משפחתו (דודו הרב יהודה קוריאט ואימו, אביו כבר נפטר) ממוגדור לליוורנו שבאיטליה, בשל רדיפה של מושל העיר. בגיל 4 התייתם אף מאימו, וחונך על ידי דודו שהיה גם מורו ורבו. הוסמך לרבנות בגיל 18, ושימש כרב העיר ליוורנו במשך כחמישים שנה. בן אמוזג הקים בעיר בית דפוס שבו הדפיס ספרי קודש שונים, ובהם ספרים של חכמי מרוקו.

הרב בן אמוזג היה בעל ידע נרחב מאוד בכתבי הקודש , ובמדעים כלליים, כגון פילוסופיה , אנתרופולוגיה , ארכאולוגיה , היסטוריה , בלשנות ו ביקורת המקרא . בכתיבתו ניכרת התמודדות עם רעיונותיהם של קאנט , הגל , פיכטה ופילוסופים אחרים. בין רעיונותיו המרכזיים היו השגת אחדות המין האנושי , על סמך היסודות האוניברסליסטיים ביהדות .

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MH:S40 אברהם קוריאט ברית אבות

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