Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh רבי אליהו בן אמוזג
rabbi of Livorno; kabbalist and philosopher
He was born at Livorno in 1823, into a family of Moroccan emigrants from Fez; his father died early and he was taught by his uncle, Rabbi Yehuda Coriat, a kabbalist. He learned trade as well, but left it for learning, and from 1855 was rabbi of Livorno to the end of his life; he taught at the city's rabbinical school and kept a printing house.
He wrote in Hebrew, Italian and French. The Em LaMikra is a commentary on the Pentateuch in which linguistics, the history of the ancient East and the comparison of religions stand beside the sages; the rabbis of Aleppo found this intolerable and burned the book in 1865. Israel and Humanity, published after his death in French, is his chief idea: the Torah carries a law for Israel and seven commandments for all the nations, and in this Judaism is a religion for humanity, not against it. He argued with Shadal, defending the Kabbalah as the ancient core of the Tradition.
He died at Livorno in 1900.
Places
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The Em LaMikra — the commentary and its burning at Aleppo
Scholarship
- Israel and Humanity — the seven commandments for the nations
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — Livorno 1823, rabbi from 1855, the dispute with Shadal, 1900
Basis: documents and evidence.