שבתאי פנזיירי

Rabbi Shabtai ben Mordechai Panzieri was an Italian rav of the seventeenth century, who served as rav of Rome in 1652–1653, as rav of Sinigaglia from 1680 to 1685, and from that year again as rav of Rome. He carried a reputation as a talmid chacham of standing, and stood in halachic correspondence with Rav Shmuel Aboab of Venice, one of the great poskim of Italy in that generation, and with Rabbi Yechiel Finzi of Florence.

One episode of his communal leadership is preserved: when it was proposed to assess the community’s property taxes by each member’s own sworn self-valuation, Rabbi Shabtai spoke energetically in defense of the established practice — valuation by an appointed commission of seven — and was joined in this by Rabbi Yosef Fiammetta. The stand reflects the classic concern of the poskim to keep the machinery of communal money far from the temptations of the oath.