רפאל אנקווה

Rav Raphael Ankawa (2 Tevet 5608/1847–4 Av 5695/1935), who appears in European records as Raphael ben Mordechai Ankawa and in older spellings as Ankavah or Encouau, was the first rav to hold the office of Chief Rabbi of Morocco. He was born in Salé to Rav Mordechai and to Bida, daughter of Rav Raphael Bibas, into a Sephardic-Moroccan rabbinic line whose earlier links included Rav Ephraim Ankawa — rav, physician and thinker of the generation driven out of Spain, who made his home in North Africa. The Jews of North Africa called him Malach Raphael, the angel Raphael. As a young man he joined his learning to a livelihood in commerce, and he learned under Rav Yissachar Atzraf, whose daughter he married.

When Rav Atzraf went up to Eretz Yisrael in 5639/1879, Rav Raphael was appointed a dayan of the beit din of Salé, and he later headed it; around 5660/1900 he opened a yeshiva in the city. Among his talmidim were Rav David Tzabach, Rav Avraham David Rivach, Rav Ephraim Shalom Ankawa, and his own son Rav Michael Yissachar. When the French administration determined that Moroccan Jewry should have a chief rabbi to represent it, a council of rabbanim put forward his name; he protested that there were rabbanim in Morocco greater than he — naming among them the dayan Rav Moshe ibn Danan of Fez — and only after those men were themselves consulted did he agree. In 5678/1918 he took the office, together with the presidency of the high beit din in Rabat. In 5689/1929 the French government awarded him the Legion of Honor.

His halachic writing fills several volumes: the responsa Karnei Re’em (Yerushalayim 5670/1910), Pa’amonei Zahav (Yerushalayim 5672/1912), To’afot Re’em (Casablanca 5690/1930), and Chiddushei Re’em, and poskim still draw on them. He was niftar in 5695/1935 at the age of eighty-seven; some fifty thousand came out the next day for his levayah, among them senior French and Muslim officials and delegations from every part of Morocco, and piyutim and songs were composed in his memory in the years that followed. His son, Rav Michael Yissachar Ankawa, later served as Chief Rabbi of Morocco in his place.