Elijah of Ferrara

Biography

Elijah of Ferrara, Rabbi Eliyahu of Ferrara (אליהו מפרארה), was a rishon of Italy, a talmid chacham of the city of Ferrara who traveled to Eretz Yisrael in the first part of the fifteenth century. He reached Yerushalayim after a stormy voyage in which he lost both a son and a grandson. Soon after he arrived, the notables of the Yerushalayim community came to him and asked him to teach the people a perek of the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah in the beit knesset and halacha in the beit midrash, and afterward appointed him a dayan.

He wrote several letters home to the wife and children he had left in Ferrara, and one of them, dated 1438, has survived. This iggeret, written in rhymed prose, was printed in the collection Divrei Chachamim at Metz in 1853 and translated by Carmoly under the title Ahavat Tzion. In it he describes Yerushalayim, relates the stories then current about the Ten Tribes and the river Sambatyon, and says he intends to visit other parts of Eretz Yisrael and send back an account of what he sees. A fragment of a second letter also survives, published by Yitzchak Akrish in his Kol Mevasser at Constantinople in 1577. From what he writes there about medical practice in Yerushalayim, and from his account in the first letter of a great plague that spread through Eretz Yisrael and the lands around it, it is thought that he also had a knowledge of medicine. His descriptions were included by Yehudah David Eisenstein in his Otzar Masaot, which appeared in 1927.

Where traditions differ. One source gives his arrival to Jerusalem as 26 Iyar 5195 (1435).

אליהו מפרארה היה יהודי-איטלקי מהעיר פרארה אשר נסע לארץ ישראל בתחילת המאה ה-15.

Elijah of Ferrara was a Jewish-Italian Talmudist and traveler of the earlier part of the 15th century. He was engaged in 1437 as lecturer and teacher in Jerusalem, where he arrived after a stormy voyage, during which he lost his son and grandson. He wrote several letters to his wife and children, whom he had left behind in Ferrara; only one of these epistles, dated 1438, has been preserved. This "Iggeret," written in rimed prose, has been published in the collection "Dibre Ḥakamim," Metz, 1853, and translated by Carmoly under the title "Ahabat Ẓiyyon." In this he gives a description of Jerusalem, recounts the legends current about the "children of Israel," the Ten Tribes, and the Sambation River, and states his intention to visit other parts of The Land of Israel and to send a description of what he sees there. A fragment of another letter has survived, published by Isaac Akrish in his "Ḳol Mebasser". From remarks contained in the latter in reference to medical practise in Jerusalem it may be inferred that Elijah was also a physician. Elijah's depictions are also included in Judah David Eisenstein's collection "Otsar Masa'ot" (1927).

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