Yitzhak Sarfati

תּוֹלְדוֹת

Rabbi Yitzchak Tzarfati (יצחק צרפתי), also spelled Tsarfati, was a rishon of Ashkenaz in the fifteenth century who settled in the Ottoman Empire and served as chief rabbi of Edirne. He was born in Germany early in the century to a family of French origin; the name Tzarfati means “the Frenchman”.

Little is known of his early life. Around 1453 he moved to the Ottoman lands, and in time he became chief rabbi of Edirne. About a year later he wrote to the Jews of Hungary, Moravia, Styria, Swabia and the Rhineland, describing with great warmth how well the Jews lived under Turkish rule. He told them that Turkey lacked nothing, that all could go well with them there, and that through Turkey the road to the Holy Land was open. In the years that followed many Jews emigrated to the Turkish lands, in what is counted as the third main wave of Jewish settlement in Turkey.

במקום שהמסורות חלוקות. Some say he reached the Ottoman Empire before the fall of Constantinople, others after it.

יצחק צרפתי היה רב ממשפחה מצרפת יליד גרמניה, שהתיישב באימפריה העות'מאנית אחרי נפילת קונסטנטינופול, ושימש כרב הראשי של אדירנה.

Yitzhak Sarfati also spelt Tsarfati was a German-born, Ashkenazi rabbi who settled in the Ottoman Empire prior to the fall of Constantinople, and served as the Chief Rabbi of Edirne.

בוויקיפדיה: עברית · אנגלית — תקציר מוויקיפדיה, CC BY-SA