Acharonim1610–1694Venice; Verona
Rabbi Shmuel Aboab (the Devar Shmuel)
Halakha and responsa, communal leadership
- Devar Shmuel
- Sefer HaZikhronot
- Verona
- Venice
- Rabbi David Franco
- Shabbetai Tzvi
- Gentiles' wine
- Rabbi Moshe Zacuto
- Italian Jewry
Halakha and responsa, communal leadership
He sought to bring the people back to the observance of halakha: in Sefer HaZikhronot, printed anonymously, he rebuked the neglect of prohibitions that people are used to take lightly, such as gentiles’ wine and shaatnez, at a time when Italian Jewry was open to close relations with its gentile neighbours. In his responsa he did not sign his own name, out of humility, but added the names of the sages of the yeshiva.
A rabbi and halakhic authority in Venice and one of the great sages of Italy, a native of Hamburg, who was sent at the age of thirteen to study in Venice with Rabbi David Franco. He founded a yeshiva in Verona that became known in the cities of Italy, and from 1650 served as rabbi and head of the rabbinical court of Venice until the end of his life, and was among the leaders of the fight in Italy against the messianic claims of Shabbetai Tzvi. He is known for his book of responsa Devar Shmuel and for Sefer HaZikhronot.
The archive doesn’t yet record Rabbi Shmuel Aboab’s teachers, so the road to Sinai can’t be drawn yet.