ANAU (Piattelli), PHINEHAS ḤAI BEN MENAHEM

ANAU (Piattelli ), PHINEHAS ḤAI BEN MENAHEM (1693–1768), rabbi in Ferrara. A member of the *Anau family, he was also known as Felice Umano. He was a pupil at the yeshivah of Isaac *Lampronti, and brother-in-law of Jacob Daniel *Olmo. An extremely fierce dispute among the rabbis in Ferrara was sparked off in 1715 when Isaac Lampronti published in Venice a periodical containing the halakhic rulings of his pupils. The second number, entitled Tosefet Bikkurei

Kaẓir, included a ruling by Anau deciding in favor of the Ashkenazi custom of stressing the words of the Priestly Blessing on the last syllable and against the view of Nehemiah ha-Kohen and his followers who wished to stress the words on the penultimate syllable. Nehemiah regarded this ruling as a personal insult and complained about Anau to Mordecai Ẓahalon. The latter, who refused to recognize Isaac Lampronti as chief rabbi of Ferrara, came to the defense of Nehemiah in his work Meẓiẓ u-Meliẓ (Venice, 1715) which deplored the insult to Nehemiah and denigrated all those rabbis, including Lampronti, who supported Phinehas Ḥai Anau's ruling. Anau wrote Givat Pinḥas, a collection of responsa which has remained in manuscript. Some of his responsa were published in the book Paḥad Yizḥak of Isaac Lampronti.

bibliography:

I.B. Ha-Levi, in: Ha-Maggid, 16 (1872), 519–20; B. Cohen, in: Sefer ha-Yovel li-Khevod… A. Marx (1943), 55; I. Sonne, in: Horeb, 6 (1951), 80, 92; Yaari, Sheluḥei, index; S. Simonsohn, Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Dukkasut Mantovah, 1 (1962), 332–4; Milano, Italia; Vogelstein-Rieger, 1 (1896), index. add. bibliography: H.A. Sosland, A Guide for Preachers on Composing and Delivering Sermons (1987), 65.

[Abraham David]