מנחם עזריה מפאנו

Rav Menachem Azariah da Fano (5308/1548–4 Av 5380/1620), the Rama MiPano, was the greatest of the mekubalim of Italy — a posek of the first rank and the bridge over which the kabbalah of Tzfat passed into Europe. Born in Bologna to a distinguished family, he learned halachah under Rav Moshe Provenzalo and the hidden wisdom under Rav Ezra of Fano, and bound himself to the Torah of Rav Moshe Cordovero: the Ramak sent the young chacham his Pardes Rimmonim, and after the Ramak’s passing he offered the widow a thousand gold pieces for her husband’s manuscripts. In later years Rav Yisrael Sarug came to his yeshiva from the circle of the Arizal — and through the Rama MiPano the kabbalah of the Ari began its conquest of Europe, joined in his teachings to the system of the Ramak.

He was also a patron of Torah in the grand style: when Rav Yosef Karo sent his Kesef Mishneh on the Rambam to Mantua for printing shortly before his passing, it was the Rama MiPano who bore part of the cost and oversaw the edition. He stood at the head of yeshivot in Reggio and in Mantua, talmidim streaming to him from Italy and Ashkenaz — among them Rav Aharon Berechiah of Modena, author of the Maavar Yabok — and his takanot shaped Italian practice: from him spread the custom of rising in the ashmoret to say selichot and techinot.

His hundred and thirty responsa show a posek of precision and independence, unafraid to differ even with the Beit Yosef; his Asarah Ma’amarot and the kabbalistic treatises the Chida counts at twenty-four made his Torah a fixture of the batei medrash of the mekubalim. He was niftar in Mantua on 4 Av 5380.