אברהם פלאג'י

Rav Avraham Palagi (13 Cheshvan 5569/1808–23 Tevet 5659/1899), known in English sources as Abraham Palacci and written also Palache or Palaggi, served as Chacham Bashi — chief rabbi — of Izmir, the Smyrna of the Ottoman Empire. He was the eldest son of Rav Chaim Palagi, who held that same post before him, and of his wife Estrolah, and he learned in the yeshiva of Beit Yaakov Rabi in the city. Like his father he began setting down chiddushim while still young, and he stood at his father’s side in writing out his teshuvot and bringing his sefarim to press; divrei Torah in his name appear in many of them.

On his father’s passing he was raised to the chief rabbinate of Izmir, which he carried for some thirty years until the end of his life. He signed his halachic teshuvot with the letters Api, standing for Avraham Palagi, and the poskim who quote him sometimes call him simply Rav Api. In 5652/1892 he was named honorary president of the city planning committee of Izmir. His brothers were Rav Rachamim Nissim Palagi, who also held the grand rabbinate, and Rav Yosef Palagi.

About twenty of his sefarim reached print, and, following his father’s way, he worked his own name into nearly every title, most of them taken from pesukim of Bereishit in which Avraham Avinu is mentioned: Shema Avraham, teshuvot on Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat; Shemo Avraham, whose second chelek is on the Sifra; Avraham Et Einav, chiddushim in halachah and aggadah across Shas; Vayashkem Avraham on Tehillim; Vayaan Avraham, teshuvot; and Vehochiach Avraham, derashot of mussar in Ladino. Together with his brother Rav Yosef he wrote Vayosef Avraham, in Ladino and in Hebrew, on the greatness of Yosef HaTzaddik. Other writings of his were lost in the great fire of Izmir on 11 Av 5601/1841, which consumed as well the manuscripts of his father and of many chachamim of that generation.

He married Sarah, the daughter of the gvir Shlomo Chai Enriques, and after her passing married Rachel; their daughter Goldah was the wife of Rav Moshe HaKohen Nahar, author of Kisei D’Berachata. The shul he founded in his own home in Izmir, Beit Hillel — named for the philanthropist of Bucharest who underwrote the printing of his sefarim — stands among the cluster of old synagogues beside the Kemeralti market, and the community calls it by his name as well.