17 Nisan · Yahrzeit

Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leon Bibas

Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leon Bibas Yahrzeit - 12 Nissan Resting place - Hebron, Israel Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leon Bibas (1780 - 1852) was a Sephardic rabbi, rabbi of the community of Corfu, one of the forerunners of Zionism, a kabbalist and a traveler. He was far ahead of political Zionism, calling on the people of Israel to stop patiently waiting for redemption and begin returning to Eretz Yisrael, so that the Shechinah would come to the Land following the Jewish people, rather than the other way around, following them into exile. Together with his student Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, he called for settlement in Israel. Bibas wrote that the Jews must prepare for an armed conquest of Eretz Yisrael from the Ottoman Empire in order to establish their own state there. At the end of his life, Rabbi Bibas immigrated to Israel and lived in Hebron. He was born in Gibraltar, which belonged to the United Kingdom. His mother was a relative of Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar - the grandfather of the Or HaChaim, who is buried in Fez. His parents were descendants of those exiled from Spain, who migrated after the expulsion from Spain to Morocco and were scholars in the community of Tetuan. Then, due to the persecution of Jews, they migrated to Gibraltar and were among the founders of the Jewish community there. As a child, he attended a yeshiva in Gibraltar. After his father's death, he moved to his paternal grandfather's home in Livorno, where he received a good education. During this period he also earned a doctoral degree. Later he headed a yeshiva in Gibraltar. Many students from Great Britain, Italy and North Africa came to study with him. After 1810, he arrived in London, where he and Moses Montefiore developed a good relationship during those years. After this he returned to Livorno. Owing to his leadership position in the Sephardic community, he maintained contact with emissaries from Eretz Yisrael, whom he hosted at his home, raising money for them, and sometimes even intervening in conflicts that arose between them. It is known that he was in contact with the emissary Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Tzoref, who even tried to secure Rabbi Bibas's appointment as the Sephardic rabbi of Amsterdam, with the emissary Rabbi Yisrael Moshe Hazan, and with Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi Margoza. From 1831 he served as rabbi of the "Italian" Jewish community on the island of Corfu. In this role he initiated various regulations for the community's residents. He also supervised institutions for educating children and youth, and strictly oversaw the kashrut of the Corfu etrogim, which Jews all over the world purchased through merchants of the Corfu community. In 1839–1840 he traveled throughout Europe and visited many Jewish communities in the East and West. In these campaigns he called on Jews to immigrate to the Land of Israel and settle there with weapons, so as to be able to defend themselves. That same year he met Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai. Alkalai described their meeting with great emotion: he called Rabbi Bibas "a holy man of G-d," "a wondrous rabbi," saying that his words "trembled in my heart, made my knees shake." Rabbi Bibas maintained that the divisions in the Holy Land must be abolished, and that Jews must labor, even with a bayonet, when necessary. Sir Moses Montefiore's plan to buy land in the Land of Israel would bring no benefit until the security of purchases in the Land of Israel was ensured. In 1852, about a year after his wife's death, he immigrated to the Land of Israel and was received by his students in Jaffa. After this he moved to Hebron, where he established his seminary and a large library, and then founded a yeshiva there and headed it. He passed away on 17 Nissan 1852, just two months after immigrating to the Land of Israel, and was buried in the ancient cemetery of Hebron. The sages of Hebron described his passing in a letter to the residents of Izmir: "His death was a death by a kiss, for he was still speaking words of Torah when his soul prepared to ascend to the higher world." Rabbi Bibas's children died during his lifetime, and his home and collection of rare books were donated to the yeshiva he founded in Hebron, which is named in his honor. The Jewish community of Hebron held an annual ritual in his honor on the night of Yom Kippur, and his name is recorded in the community's prayer register. A street in the Nachalot neighborhood of Jerusalem is named after him. He is often quoted by his student Chacham Yehuda Alkalai. His letters are quoted in the writings of Chacham Rabbi Chaim Palachi. May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael! (https://www.hyomi.org.il/page.asp?id=779)