ALFANDARI, JACOB

ALFANDARI, JACOB (c. 1620–1695), halakhic writer and preacher, the oldest son of Ḥayyim Alfandari the Elder, one of the leading scholars of Constantinople. Alfandari, who studied under his father, taught at a yeshivah. His disciples included Jacob Sasson. According to Abraham Miguel Cardoso, he urged his devotees not to accept the teaching of Shabbetai Ẓevi. He wrote many responsa, but most of his writings were destroyed in a fire in Constantinople. Some were rescued and published by his nephew Ḥayyim b. Isaac Alfandari, under the title Muẓẓal me-Esh ("Saved from Fire"; appended to his Esh Dat, Constantinople, 1718). Another portion, also published under the same title, was incorporated in Joseph Kasabi's responsa Rav Yosef (Constantinople, 1736), which was edited by Kasabi's pupil Jacob b. Judah Alfandari, grandson of the author. The responsa that he sent in reply to his brother Isaac Raphael's inquiries were published in Maggid me-Reshit (1660–74). A book of his sermons was in the possession of his nephew, Ḥayyim b. Isaac Raphael, who, in his Esh Dat, frequently cites homiletical expositions in his uncle's name. His rhetorical style, which is replete with rabbinical sayings, caused Ḥayyim Joseph David Azulai to call him "the father of rhetoric." His grandson Jacob was a prominent disciple of Ḥayyim b. Isaac Alfandari, and wrote an introduction to Mikhtav me-Eliyahu by Elijah Alfandari (1723).

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Ghirondi-Neppi, 180 (but the mention of a book on the Torah in manuscript may refer to a work by another scholar of the same name).