Yahrzeit/Hilula of Chacham Raphael Berdugo (HaMalach)

Chacham Raphael Berdugo, also known as HaMalach (the Angel).

Raphael was born to Rachel and Chacham Mordechai, known as HaMarbitz, in 1747 in Meknes, Morocco.

He began his studies together with his older brother, Chacham Yekutiel. At night they studied by moonlight, because they had no money to buy candles. In 1762, when he was 15 years old, Chacham Raphael Berdugo's father passed away, and he continued his studies in conditions of extreme poverty. Chacham Raphael Berdugo never forgot his impoverished youth, and upon reaching adulthood he became a defender of the Jewish poor. He often praised them in his commentaries on the Torah, as well as in enacting public ordinances (takanot ha-kahal). Chacham Raphael Berdugo married, and we know of four of his sons, one of whom was Chacham Maimon Berdugo, known as Mevin and author of the book Lev Mevin.

Chacham Raphael Berdugo wrote his commentary on the Talmud, Sharvit Zahav, in 1771, when he was 24 years old. He was appointed Av Beit Din (head of the rabbinical court) of Meknes while still in his thirties, and the communities of the Maghreb regarded him as the leading halachic authority of his generation. As a communal leader, Chacham Raphael Berdugo was a source of comfort and support for the Jews of the Maghreb during the droughts and plague epidemics that struck the Maghreb in those years, and especially during the riots that broke out between 1790 and 1792.

The riots were triggered in 1790 by the death of Muhammad, the Alaouite sultan, and the ensuing battles among his sons over the succession. Moulay Yazid, the son who seized power, waged a bloody war against the Jews of Morocco. Hundreds of Jewish martyrs died terrible deaths, Jewish women were raped, and Jewish homes were burned to the ground. The famous lament of Chacham David Chassin, a poet of that period (who was married to Chacham Raphael Berdugo's sister), was written in memory of these riots. For his pious and ascetic way of life, Chacham Raphael Berdugo earned the nickname "the Angel Raphael." On the 21st of Tishrei, 5582 (1822), on the eve of Hoshana Rabbah, after completing the study of the Idra from the Zohar and finishing the Tikkun, Chacham Raphael Berdugo passed away at the age of 75. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Meknes.