Saul Adadi

{{Infobox Jewish leader

| honorific-prefix = Hakham

| name = Saul Adadi

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| yeshivaposition = Rosh yeshiva

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| birth_name = Saul Adadi

| birth_date = 1850

| birth_place = Tripoli, Libya

| death_date = September 18, {{death year and age|1918|1850}}

| buried = Tripoli

| yahrtzeit = 13 Tishrei 5679{{sfn|Halpern|1987|p=301}}

| nationality = Libyan

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| parents = Abraham Hayyim Adadi

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Saul Adadi ({{langx|he|שאול עבדיה אדאדי}}, 1850 – September 18, 1918){{sfn|Halpern|1987|p=301}} was a Sephardi Hakham, rosh yeshiva, and paytan in the 19th-century Jewish community of Tripoli, Libya. He was heavily involved in youth education, founding a yeshiva and co-founding and serving as principal of a Talmud Torah. He preserved the pinkasim (community record books) of the Tripoli Jewish community, unpublished manuscripts of 18th-century Tripoli Jewish leader Rabbi Abraham Khalfon, and sefarim belonging to his father, Hakham Abraham Hayyim Adadi, a senior rabbi of the previous generation.

Family

Saul Adadi was born in Tripoli, the scion of a distinguished rabbinical family.{{sfn|Abramsky-Belli|1997|p=43}} He was the son of Hakham Abraham Hayyim Adadi (1801–1874), head of the Tripoli rabbinical court and author of several halakhic works. He was the great-grandson of Hakham Nathan Adadi (1740–1818), one of the leaders of the Tripoli Jewish community in the 19th century, and the great-great-grandson of Hakham Mas'ud Hai Rakkah (1690–1768), author of Ma'aseh Rokeaḥ, who is credited with laying the foundation for the development of the Jewish community of Tripoli into one of "sages, scribes, and kabbalists".{{sfn|Hallamish|2001|p=78}} He was a contemporary of Hakham Jacob Rakkah (1800–1891), another great-great-grandson of Mas'ud Hai Rakkah and author of approximately 40 sefarim.{{cite web|url=http://www.livluv.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/185CircleOfYear.pdf|title=הילולת ר' יעקב רקח זצ"ל|trans-title=Hillula of Rabbi Yaakov Rakkaḥ zt"l|language=Hebrew|publisher=World Organization of Libyan Jews|access-date=14 October 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821000708/http://livluv.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/185CircleOfYear.pdf|archive-date=21 August 2014}}

On Lag BaOmer 1870, Adadi's father and mother returned to Safed in the Levant, where the senior Adadi had lived in his younger years and served as a shadar (rabbinical emissary). Saul remained in Tripoli and corresponded with his father until the latter's death in 1874.{{cite web |url=http://www.mytzadik.com/index.asp?lid=5&page=tzadik&kid=1728 |title=Rabbi Avraham Chaim Adadi|publisher=My Tzadik|access-date=14 October 2015}}

Rabbinic career

Adadi founded a yeshiva in Tripoli{{sfn|Halpern|1987|p=301}} and served as rosh yeshiva.{{cite web |url= http://www.hevratpinto.org/parsha_hebrew/5773/633_haazinu.pdf|title=הילולא וצדיקיא|trans-title=Hilula and Tzaddikim|publisher=Orot Hayyim V'Moshe|date=2013|access-date=14 October 2015|language=Hebrew|page=1}} With secular educational streams making inroads in Tripoli, Adadi, together with Rabbis Zion Tzaror, Mas'ud Jenah, and Nissim Nahum, founded a Talmud Torah called Yagdil Torah in 1893.{{sfn|Spector|Wigoder|2001|p=1327}} In its first year, this Talmud Torah enrolled 330 children, and by 1905, when its permanent building was erected, 400 students, mostly from poor families. Adadi was the principal of the school,{{sfn|Halpern|1987|p=301}}{{sfn|Slouschz|1927|p=10}} and was responsible for testing the children once a week and recording their grades to track the success of the program.{{cite web |url=http://www.or-shalom.org.il/article.asp?article_main_id=1&article_sub_topic_id=345&article_id=174&article_topic_id=63&article_topic_name=%E4%E7%E9%F0%E5%EA&article_sub_topic_name=%FA%EC%EE%E5%E3%E9%20%E4%FA%E5%F8%E4%20%E5%E1%FA%E9%20%E4%F1%F4%F8|title=הזהרו בבני עניים שמהם תצא תורה|language=Hebrew|trans-title=Be Careful of the Children of the Poor, For the Torah Will Come From Them|publisher=Or-Shalom|first=Benetiya |last=Pedatzor|date=2 February 2004|access-date=14 October 2015}}

Adadi also built a synagogue in Tripoli; a commemorative marker that records his name along with the names of builders of all of the other synagogues built in Tripoli from the Middle Ages until the Second World War appears in the Eitz Chaim synagogue in Or Yehuda, Israel,{{cite web |url=http://www.trables.co.il/article.asp?id=65 |title= אשרי עין ראתה כל אלה |trans-title= Fortunate is the Eye That Saw All This|language=Hebrew|publisher=Siftei Raananot|access-date=14 October 2015}} where many North African Jews settled.

Adadi also composed piyyutim (liturgical poems), and left a volume of piyyutim in manuscript form.{{sfn|Halpern|1987|p=301}} He died in Tripoli{{sfn|Tagger|Kerem|2006|p=243}} on September 18, 1918 (13 Tishrei 5679).{{sfn|Halpern|1987|p=301}}

Legacy

Scholars have uncovered the pinkasim (community record books) of the Tripoli Jewish community in Adadi's study hall, as well as unpublished manuscripts (ktav yad) of Rabbi Abraham Khalfon, one of the heads of the community in the 18th century.{{sfn|Ha-Cohen|1993|p=37}}{{sfn|Malachi|Mirsky|1986|p=412}} Adadi also preserved the sefarim of his father, which carry his (Saul Adadi's) stamp and which have been sold at auction.{{cite web |url= https://www.kedem-auctions.com/content/sefer-leket-hakemach-amsterdam-1707-many-glosses|title= Sefer Leket HaKemach – Amsterdam, 1707 – With Many Glosses|publisher=Kedem Auction House|date=13 July 2011|access-date=14 October 2015}}{{cite web |url= https://www.kedem-auctions.com/content/collection-books-printed-salonika-and-izmir|title=A Collection of Books Printed in Salonika and Izmir|date=2 March 2011|access-date=14 October 2015|publisher=Kedem Auction House}}

Rakkah-Adadi family tree

{{Tree chart| | | A1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A1=Aharon Rakkah}}

{{Tree chart| | | M1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | M1=Mas'ud Hai Rakkah}}

{{Tree chart| I | | N | | | | | | | | | | | I=Yitzhak Rakkah|N=Nathan Adadi}}

{{Tree chart| B | | M1 | | | | | | | | | B=Baruh Rakkah |M1=Mas'ud Hai Adadi}}

{{Tree chart| ש | | | | א | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ש= Shilomo Rakkah|א= Abraham Hayyim Adadi}}

{{Tree chart| י | | צ | | ש | | | | | | | | | | | | | | י= Jacob Rakkah|צ= Zion Rakkah|ש= Saul Adadi}}

{{Tree chart| א | | מ | | | | | | | | | א= Abraham Rakkah|מ= Meir Rakkah}}

References

=Notes=

=Sources=

{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DPs-AQAAIAAJ&q=%D7%A9%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9C+%D7%90%D7%93%D7%90%D7%93%D7%99 |title= פנקס הקהילות: אנציקלופדיה של היישובים היהודיים למן היווסדם ועד לאחר שואת מלחמת העולם השנייה. לוב ; תוניסיה |trans-title=Community Record Books: Encyclopedia of the Jewish communities according to their establishment until after the Holocaust during the Second World War: Tripoli, Tunisia|language=Hebrew|first=Irit|last=Abramsky-Belli|publisher=Yad Vashem|year=1997|isbn= 9789653080591 }}
{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SfWgAAAAMAAJ&q=shaul+adadi |title=The Book of Mordecai: A Study of the Jews of Libya|first=Mordecaï|last=Ha-Cohen|year=1993|publisher=Darf Publishers|isbn=1850772304}}
{{cite book |url=http://www.kotar.co.il/KotarApp/Viewer.aspx?nBookID=95641895#80.835.5.fitwidth|title=הקבלה בצפון אפריקה למן המאה הט"ז : סקירה היסטורית ותרבותית|trans-title=The Kabbalah in North Africa: A Historical and Cultural Survey|first=Moshe|last=Hallamish|year=2001|publisher=Hakibbutz Hameyuchad|location=Tel Aviv|page=78|language=Hebrew}}
{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ioMRAQAAIAAJ&q=שאול+אדאדי|title= אטלס עץ-חיים|trans-title=Atlas Eitz Chaim|language=Hebrew|first=Raphael|last=Halpern|year=1987|publisher=Hekdesh Ruach Yaakov|volume=13}}
{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SIIRAQAAIAAJ&q=%D7%A9%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9C+%D7%90%D7%93%D7%90%D7%93%D7%99|title= באורח מדע: מחקרים בתרבות ישראל, מוגשים לאהרן מירסקי במלאת לו שבעים שנה|trans-title=The Way of Science: Israeli cultural studies, presented to Aaron Mirsky upon the completion of his seventy years|first1=Zvi |last1=Malachi|first2=Aaron|last2=Mirsky|year=1986|publisher=Habermann Institute for Literary Research}}
{{cite book |url=http://www.pdfarchive.info/pdf/S/Sl/Slouschz_Nahoum_-_Travels_in_North_Africa.pdf|title=Travels in North Africa|first=Nahum|last=Slouschz|author-link=Nahum Slouschz|year=1927|publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America}}
{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tumlOiOZvSUC&pg=PA1327 |title=The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: Seredina-Buda-Z|editor-first= Shmuel |editor-last=Spector|editor2-first=Geoffrey|editor2-last=Wigoder|year=2001|publisher=NYU Press|volume=3|isbn= 0814793789}}
{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MlRmAAAAMAAJ&q=Shaul+Adadi|title=Guidebook for Sephardic and Oriental Genealogical Sources in Israel|last1=Tagger|first1=Mathilde A. |last2=Kerem|first2=Yitzchak|year=2006|publisher=Avotaynu|isbn=1886223289}}

Category:1850 births

Category:1918 deaths

Category:Libyan rabbis

Category:Rosh yeshivas

Category:18th-century Sephardi Jews

Category:19th-century Sephardi Jews

Category:People from Tripoli, Libya

Category:Jewish liturgical poets