Rabbi Ovadiah Bartenura

Rabbi Ovadiah ben Avraham Bartenura was a student of Yosef Colon Trabotto (the Maharik) and became the Rabbi of Bertinoro, a town in what is now the province of Forlì-Cesena, from which he took his name, and of Castello. Yahrzeit - 3 Sivan Resting place - Jerusalem, at the foot of Har HaZeitim His desire to visit the Land of Israel brought him to Jerusalem; he arrived there on March 25, 1488, having begun his journey on October 29, 1486. His arrival marked a new era for the Jewish community there. The management of Jewish communal affairs in Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of unscrupulous officials. The Muslim government imposed heavy taxes on the Jews; the wealthy were treated the same way and driven out of the city by exorbitant demands, so that the Jewish community was on the verge of ruin. In a letter written to his brother in Jerusalem on August 24, 1489, Rabbi Ovadiah mentions that Jews were flocking to Jerusalem from Egypt, Damascus, Aleppo, and other places to worship G-d. In the same year, he says he also met Jews from Aden. He writes of himself that he lived in the house of the Nagid and delivered sermons twice a month to the Jewish community in Hebrew, and that he was exempted from the regular tax levied on all other Jewish residents. Later that same year, on December 17, he writes that he had moved to Hebron, where he found the atmosphere far more favorable, and a small Jewish community numbering about twenty families. Bartenura's personality, eloquence, and great scholarly reputation led to his being accepted as the spiritual head of the community immediately upon his arrival. His first concern was to raise the intellectual level of the community, and to this end he engaged the younger generation in the study of Talmud and rabbinic literature, and every other Shabbat he delivered sermons in Hebrew, although the vernacular language was Arabic, which Bartenura never learned. His connections in Italy provided him with funds to support the poor, which further enhanced his authority. He managed to secure the abolition of the annual tax of 400 ducats, which had been an unbearable burden on the people; in its place a simple poll tax, paid directly to the government, was introduced. When, after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, many exiles settled in Jerusalem, Bartenura became their intellectual leader. These Spanish Jews provided Bartenura with a place for a yeshiva in Jerusalem, which he established more than a thousand years after the disappearance of the last academy in the Land of Israel. Significant support for the upkeep of the yeshiva was provided by the Jews of Egypt and Turkey at Bartenura's written request. Isaac ben Natan ibn Shulal, the Nagid and prince of Egypt, was especially helpful. During the decade in which Bartenura oversaw the interests of the Jewish community in Jerusalem, radical changes for the better took place. Shortly after his arrival, he was once forced to dig a grave himself, because the community had provided no one to do this work; a few years later, charitable institutions such as hospitals, charitable aid societies, and similar associations had emerged, all of them excellently run. His fame spread throughout the East, and he came to be regarded as the foremost rabbinic authority; even the Muslim population often turned to him to settle legal disputes. He sharply criticized rabbis for charging fees for officiating at weddings and divorces, a practice that was common at the time in Germany. He considered it his duty to perform religious rites without monetary compensation. Bartenura is best known as a commentator on the Mishnah; the importance of his commentary is illustrated by the fact that since its first appearance (Venice, 1549), almost no edition of the Mishnah has been printed without it. The commentary is based mainly on Rashi and the Rambam. Bartenura is also the author of a super-commentary on Rashi's commentary on the Torah. May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael! https://dailyzohar.com/tzadikim/389-Rabbi-Ovadiah-ben-Abraham-of-Bartenura