הרב אליעזר פאפו

Rav Eliezer Papo (5546/1785–5588/1827), the poseik and mekubal known to all by his musar classic Pele Yoetz, was born in Sarajevo (then Saraybosna, in the Ottoman province of Bosnia) into one of the old established families of that community. His parents were Yitzchak and Blanka Papo, and he learned in the local yeshivot under Rav Eliyahu Chayon and Rav Moshe Danon, acquiring wide mastery of Torah. Already in Sarajevo he wrote his first sefer, Chodesh HaAviv, chiddushim on Berachot, Shabbat and Eruvin. After his marriage he settled in Silistra, in Bulgaria, and served as head of the local kehillah; in 5579/1819 he came to Bucharest, where he reorganized the Sephardic community before returning to Silistra.

His name lives in the Pele Yoetz, a work of musar arranged by the alef-beis, counseling a Jew how to conduct himself in every area of life. Beside it he wrote Chesed L’Alafim, a Kitzur Shulchan Aruch on Orach Chaim and Yoreh De’ah woven through with musar; Beit Tefillah, a collection of tefillot and techinot for many occasions, including one for the welfare of Klal Yisrael; Orot Elim, on minhagim and halachot; Yaalzu Chasidim on Sefer Chasidim; Elef HaMagen; and a volume of responsa. His talmid Rav Yehuda Alkalai was among the early heralds of the return to Tziyon.

Rav Eliezer longed to go up to Eretz Yisrael, but in 5586/1826 he fell ill, and a second name, Yechezkel, was added for his recovery. He was niftar on the 20th of Tishrei 5588, at the age of forty-two, and was buried in Silistra, Bulgaria. Before his passing he declared that whoever would prostrate at his grave after immersion, the recitation of Tehillim and heartfelt tefillah would be answered with yeshuah. His son Rav Yehuda Papo went up to Eretz Yisrael and settled in Yerushalayim, and his kever in Bulgaria remains to this day a place of pilgrimage.