Rabbi is the term in Judaism for a religious teacher. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ in many senses, including "revered." The word comes from the Semitic root R-B-B, and is cognate to Arabic ربّ rabb, meaning "lord" Rabbi ' onMouseout='HidePop("75763")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Constantinople">Constantinople
Constantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
and son-in-law of Abraham Rosanes I. His teachers in
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
and rabbinics were Samuel ha-Levi and Joseph di Trani. On account of his knowledge of
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
and
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
he was appointed by the government as chief rabbi ("hakam bashi") of the
Ottoman empireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
. He died at an advanced age in Constantinople on April 13, 1727;
Judah took a very active part in condemning and denouncing the Shabbethaians, and he was one of the signers of an appeal to the German communities to oppose the movement (comp.
Jacob EmdenJacob Emden was a rabbi and notable talmudist, and prominent opponent of the Sabbateans. He was born at Altona June 4, 1697, and died there April 19, 1776...
,
Torat ha-Ḳena'ot, Lemberg, 1870). He wrote:
- Parashat Derakim (Constantinople, 1727), a work containing twenty-six homiletic treatises on various subjects.
- A pamphlet entitled Derek Miẓwoteka, a treatise on the 613 commandments, based on the treatises on the same subject by Maimonides
Moses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or the acronym the Rambam , was born in Cordoba, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204....
and others.
- Mishneh la-Melek (ib. 1731), glosses and comments on Maimonides' Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah; later it was printed together with the Yad (Jessnitz, 1739-1740).
This work and others were edited & published by his devoted pupil Rabbi
Yaakov CuliRabbi Yaakov Culi was a Talmudist and Biblical commentator of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who died in Constantinople on August 9, 1732. He belonged to an exiled Spanish family, and was the grandson and pupil of Moses ibn Habib. He edited various important works. The first fruit of his...
.
Several works bear approbations ("haskamot") by Judah Rosanes, among others
Joseph AlmosninoJoseph Almosnino was the son of Isaac and grandson of Moses ben Baruch Almosnino. He was rabbi at Belgrade, and author of numerous responsa, collected by his son Isaac under the title Edut bi-Yehosef and published at Constantinople, 1711-33.Joseph died at Nikolsburg, Moravia, in 1689....
's
Edut bi-Yehosef.