Jacob Saphir was a Meshulach and travel

Travel

Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...

er of Rumanian

History of the Jews in Romania

The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....

 descent, born in Oshmyany, government of Wilna.

While still a boy he went to Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 with his parents, who settled at Safed

Safed

Safed , is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and of Israel. Due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters...

, and at their death in 1836 he moved to Jerusalem. In 1848, he was commissioned by the Jewish community of the latter city to travel through the southern countries to collect alms for the poor of Jerusalem. In 1854 he undertook a second tour to collect funds for the construction of the Hurva Synagogue

Hurva Synagogue

The Hurva Synagogue, , also known as Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid , is a historic synagogue located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem....

 in the Jewish Quarter which led him to Yemen

Yemen

The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

, British India, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

The result of this journey was his `Even Sapir (vol. i., Lyck, 1866; vol. ii., Mainz, 1874), in which work he gave the history, and a vivid though uncritical description of the condition, of the Jews in the above-mentioned countries. Saphir published also Iggeret Teman (Wilna, 1868, consciously titled after Rambam's letter of centuries earlier), a work on the appearance in Yemen of the pseudo-Messiah

False messiah

-Judaism:Armilus is an anti-Messiah figure in late-period Jewish eschatology, comparable to the Christian Antichrist and Muslim Dajjal, who will conquer Jerusalem and persecute the Jews until his final defeat at the hands of God or the true Messiah...

 Judah ben Shalom

Judah ben Shalom

Judah ben Shalom , also known as Mori Shooker Kohail II or Shukr Kuhayl II , was a Yemenite messianic pretender of the mid-19th century....

, and which was largely responsible for ending Judah ben Shalom's career. Saphir died in Jerusalem in 1886.

Saphir was the first Jewish researcher to recognize the significance of the Cairo geniza

Cairo Geniza

The Cairo Geniza is a collection of almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments found in the Genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, presently Old Cairo, Egypt. Some additional fragments were found in the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and the collection includes a number of...

, as well as the first to publicize the existence of the Midrash ha-Gadol

Midrash ha-Gadol

Midrash HaGadol or The Great Midrash is an anonymous late compilation of aggadic midrashim on the Pentateuch taken from the two Talmuds and earlier Midrashim. In addition, it borrows quotations from the Targums and Kabbalistic writings , and in this aspect is unique among the various midrashic...

, both later studied with great panache by Solomon Schechter

Solomon Schechter

Solomon Schechter was a Moldavian-born Romanian and English rabbi, academic scholar, and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and architect of the American Conservative Jewish...

.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

• Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 557–558;
• idem, in Ha-Karmel, vi, Wilna, 1866;
• Geiger, Abraham
  Abraham Geiger
  Abraham Geiger was a German rabbi and scholar who led the founding of Reform Judaism...
  
  , in Jüd. Zeit. xi.263-270.

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article on Jacob Saphir written by Isidore Singer
  Isidore Singer
  Isidore Singer was an editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man.-Biography:...
  
   & Schulim Ochser.
• Publications by Jacob Saphir
• Rabbi Jacob Levi Saphir & his Voyage to Australia