Yosef ben Eliyahu Ḥazzan

The Ḥazzans (Ḥazan) were a Sephardi rabbinical family first mentioned in seventeenth-century Izmir (Smyrna). Several members of the family served as rabbis in communities of the Ottoman Empire from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century.

Joseph ben Elijah Ḥazzan (d. after 1694) was a pupil of Joseph di Ṭrani (Mahariṭ; d. 1638) in Istanbul. After some time in Izmir, he settled in Jerusalem. He was the author of several works, including ʿEn Yosef (The Face of Joseph; Izmir, 1675), a collection of homilies on the weekly Torah portions,and ʿEn Yehosef (The Face of Jehoseph; Izmir, 1735), a commentary on tractate Bava Meṣiʿa of the Babylonian Talmud. His son Ḥayyim ben Joseph Ḥazzan (d. 1712) was a rabbi in Izmir and in Egypt. After settling in Jerusalem, he went on a mission to Europe as a rabbinical emissary (shadar or meshullaḥ) and died while in Mir, Lithuania. He was the author of Shenot Ḥayyim (Years of Life; Venice, 1693), a collection of homilies on the Torah. His responsa and other commentaries remained in manuscript. His son David ben Ḥayyim Ḥazzan was born and raised in Jerusalem. In the 1720s, he too was sent to Europe as an emissary. On his return he settled in the ancestral hometown of Izmir, where he founded a printing house. He was the author of commentaries on Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs, respectively entitled Ḥoze David (David’s Vision; Amsterdam, 1724), Qohelet ben David (Koheleth son of David; Salonica, 1748), and Agan ha-Sahar (A Round Goblet; Salonica, 1750).

Joseph Raphael ben Ḥayyim Ḥazzan (known by the acronym Yareaḥ; d. 1820) was the grandson of David ben Ḥayyim. Born in Izmir, he was orphaned at an early age, but continued his studies and in 1794 accepted an appointment there as a head rabbi, second to Raphael Isaac ben Aaron Mayo (d. 1810). The relations between the two were complicated and troublesome, because they differed on many social and communal questions. After the death of Rabbi Mayo, Joseph Raphael became the chief rabbi (rav kolel) of the city. Three years later, he went to Palestine and settled in Hebron. In 1818, Joseph Raphael became the chief rabbi (rishon le-ṣiyyon)of the Sephardi community in Jerusalem, a position he held till his death. Joseph Raphael had four sons from his marriage to Rusa, the daughter of Daniel Pallache (Palaggi; see Pallache Family), all of whom were noted scholars: Eliezer (d. 1823), author of the responsa collection Mishpeṭe ha-Shem (Judgments of the Lord; Jerusalem, 1995), which until recently remained in manuscript form; Raḥamim Elijah (d. 1840); Isaac (d. 1854); and Ḥayyim David. Joseph Raphael’s responsa collection, Ḥiqre Lev (Searchings of the Heart; Salonica, 1785–87), encompasses seven volumes. He also wrote a collection of homiletic sermons entitled Maʿarakhe Lev (Preparations of the Heart; Salonica, 1821–22).

Israel Moses ben Eliezer Ḥazzan (d. 1862) moved with his family to Jerusalem while still a child. In the 1840s he served as one of the city’s jurists (dayyanim). He left Jerusalem in 1848 as a rabbinical emissary to Western Europe. In 1845, while in London, he published Words of Peace and Truth, a polemical tract taking issue with a pamphlet of the Reform movement, which had recently been established in England. While in Rome, Israel Moses was offered the rabbinate of its Jewish community. He remained there until 1852, spent the next few years as rabbi in Corfu, and in 1857 accepted the rabbinate of the Jewish community in Alexandria. He finally returned to Palestine in 1862. He settled in Jaffa (Yafo), but soon afterward died while on a visit to Beirut. Israel Moses was a spirited polemicist. His Qinʾat Ṣiyyon (Zeal for Zion; Amsterdam, 1846) is a collection of his letters condemning the Reform rabbinical synod convened by Levi Herzfeld in Brunswick, Germany, in 1844. His Sheʾerit ha-Naḥala: Vikuaḥ Shoʾel u-Meshiv (Remnant of the Portion: A Dialogue of Questioner and Respondent; Alexandria, 1862) is a dialogue between a pious merchant and two rabbis. Their exchange takes up many topics, such as the question of language study by Jewish youths and the value of secular studies, including the physical sciences, all of which Israel Moses favored. His Kerakh shel Romi (The Metropolis of Rome; Livorno, 1875), is a collection of responsa. He also wrote a commentary on the gaonic responsa entitled Iyye ha-Yam (The Isles of the Sea), but only the first of its two parts was published in his lifetime (Livorno, 1869; Jerusalem, 1980). His other works remain in manuscript.

Elijah Bekhor ben Raphael Joseph Ḥazzan (d. 1908) moved to Jerusalem at the age of ten with his grandfather, Rabbi Ḥayyim David ben Joseph Raphael Ḥazzan. From the 1860s, he fulfilled public roles in the Sephardi congregations of Jerusalem, and in 1870 he visited England, France, and Italy, meeting with Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron de Rothschild. Two years later he went to Algeria and Tunisia as a meshullaḥ and was profoundly impressed by the impact of modern French civilization on Jews there, particularly the emancipated Algerian Jews. He gave voice to his thoughts on modernity and emancipation in his important philosophical dialogue Zikhron Yerusalayim (A Remembrance of Jerusalem; Livorno, 1874). In 1875, he accepted the chief rabbinate of Tripoli and during his tenure restructured the city’s communal life. In 1888 Elijah Bekhor moved to Alexandria, where he remained for the rest of his life. Among his books are the responsa collection Ta‘alumot Lev (Secrets of the Heart; Livorno, 1878) and Neve Shalom (A Peaceable Habitation; Alexandria, 1893).

Yaron Ben Naeh

Bibliography

Biṭon, Daniel (ed.). Sefer She’elot u-Teshuvot Ḥiqrey Lev (Jerusalem: Mekhon ha-Ma’or, 1998), introduction.

Frumkin, Arye Leib, and Eliezer Rivlin. Toledot Ḥakhme Yerushalayim, 3 vols. (Jerusalem: Defus Salomon, 1927), index.

Gaon, Moshe David. Oriental Jews in Eretz-Israel (Past and Present), 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 1928–38; repr. n.p., n.d .), vol. 2, pp. 245–253 [Hebrew].

Hazzan, Israel Moses. Words of Peace and Truth (London: Meldola, 1845).

Rosanes, Salomon A. Histoire des Israélites de Turquie et de l’Orient (Sofia: Amichpat, 1934–38), vols. 4–5 passim [Hebrew].

Stillman, Norman. Sephardi Religious Responses to Modernity (Luxembourg: Harwood Academic Press, 1995).

Zohar, Zvi. The Luminous Face of the East: Studies in the Legal and Religious Thought of Sephardic Rabbis of the Middle East (Israel: Hakkibutz Hameuchad, 2001) [Hebrew].

Cite this page

Yaron Ben Naeh. "Ḥazzan family." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online, 2013.<http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>