Moshe Alshich HaKadosh

Grave of Moshe Alshich HaKadosh - leader of Safed during the time of the Ari Yahrzeit - 13 Nisan Burial place - Safed Alshich HaKadosh was born in Adrianople (Edirne) in 1508. He studied at the yeshivah in Thessaloniki under Rabbi Yosef Taitazak. He later moved to Safed, where he studied under Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch, who granted him semikhah (rabbinic ordination). He became renowned as an orator and delivered sermons in the synagogue on Shabbat. He traveled throughout the Jewish communities of the Middle East to raise funds for the yeshivot of Safed. He authored a number of commentaries on the Tanakh and headed a yeshivah in Safed. Among his most famous students were Rabbis Chaim Vital and Yom Tov Tzahalon. Rabbi Alshich was the first of four sages to be honored for centuries with the title HaKadosh (the holy). This honorific is also traditionally added to the names of the great Kabbalists of the Land of Israel: Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (the Ari HaKadosh), Rabbi Yeshaya Horowitz (Shela HaKadosh), and Rabbi Chaim Ibn Attar (Or HaChaim HaKadosh). In 1587, at the age of 80, Rabbi Moshe Alshich moved to Damascus to escape an epidemic that had broken out in Safed. Beginning in 1590, he spent three years traveling among the communities of Syria, Turkey, and Persia, collecting donations for the Jews of Safed. In addition to his commentaries on the Five Books of Moses, Rabbi Moshe Alshich wrote commentaries on all the books of the Prophets (except Ezekiel), as well as on Tehillim (Psalms), Mishlei (Proverbs), Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs), and the books of Daniel, Job, and Ruth. In 1592, while staying in Istanbul, he published several of his works for the first time at the Jewish printing press of the Mendes family. He sent most of his manuscripts to Venice for publication, where, during his lifetime, his commentaries on Shir HaShirim (in 1591) and Mishlei (in 1592) appeared. He died in Safed in 1593. A separate tombstone for Alshich stands on the roof of the cave.