1 Kislev · Yahrzeit
Yahrzeit/Hillula of Rabbi Ephraim Ankawa - Miracle Worker
1 Kislev - Yahrzeit of Rabbi Ephraim ben Israel Ankawa (1359–1442) (his family name was originally "Al-Nakawa") - a tzadik who rode a lion with a bridle made of a snake.
He was a renowned physician, rabbi, and founder of the Jewish community in Tlemcen (Algeria), where he passed away in 1442.
According to legend, Rabbi Ephraim Ankawa fled the Spanish Inquisition, which burned his father Rabbi Israel ben Yosef and his mother at the stake, and arrived in Tlemcen riding a lion, using a snake as a bridle.
Rabbi Azulai calls him a miracle worker. After all the other physicians had failed, Ankawa succeeded in healing the only daughter of a king of the Zayanid dynasty.
Refusing the reward of gold and silver offered to him by the king, he asked only that the Jews living near Tlemcen be allowed to gather there and live in peace.
This is how the community was formed. The first thing Ankawa did was establish a large synagogue: it still exists today and bears his name. Above the rabbi's chair, on which a verse from Jeremiah is inscribed, a lamp burns continuously.
Ankawa's grave, surrounded by his family, is located in the old cemetery: it is a holy site for North African Jews and is frequently visited by pilgrims from all over Algeria.
Rabbi Ankawa had two sons, Israel and Judah. The latter lived in Oran, Mostaganem, and later in Tlemcen, and became the father-in-law of Simeon ben Zemah Duran.
Ankawa wrote "Sha'ar Kevod Adonai" for his eldest son Israel, containing responses to Nachmanides' critical comments on Maimonides' "Moreh Nevuchim" (Guide for the Perplexed).
Manuscripts of this work are kept in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
He also wrote several hymns.
May the merit of this tzadik protect our people!