Rabbi Shimon Lavi רבי שמעון לביא
an exile from Spain who raised up Jewish Tripoli; author of Ketem Paz and of the piyut Bar Yochai
Spain had time only to bear him, around 5246: in 5252 he went into exile as a child with everyone else. The family settled in Fez, and there he was taught—Torah and Kabbalah.
How he stayed. In 5309 (1549) he set out for the Land of Israel, but on the way he was seized and held for ransom. Redeemed, he reached Tripoli and found a community where almost nobody knew anything. He stayed—and stayed for good: for more than thirty years he judged, taught, and set the court and the learning on their feet. Three centuries later eleven yeshivot were working in the city, and Libyan Jews counted him their greatest sage.
The books. Ketem Paz is his commentary on the Zohar (on Genesis and Exodus), one of the most thorough written in the Maghreb; it was printed only in 5555 (1795), two hundred years after its author's death. And the piyut Bar Yochai, sung on Friday night and on Lag BaOmer throughout the Jewish world—from Morocco to Poland—was written by him.
He died in Tripoli around 5345. Both Jews and Muslims came to his grave.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Shimon Lavi, Ketem Paz (printed 5555) — his commentary on the Zohar — the chief witness to his teaching
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, "Labi, Simeon" — the expulsion from Spain, Fez, the captivity and ransom on the way to the Land of Israel in 5309, the thirty years in Tripoli, the piyut Bar Yochai
Basis: documents and evidence.