Berakhah, Isaac
BERAKHAH, ISAAC
BERAKHAH, ISAAC (d. 1772), rabbi and preacher in the Aleppo community. The support and encouragement of Elijah Silbirah enabled Berakhah to pursue his studies until he became a noted scholar. His Berakh Yiẓḥak (Venice, 1763), a book of homiletics, contains several sermons for each weekly Reading of the Law; they deal mostly with halakhic problems. He often mentions Maimonides' Yad ha-Ḥazakah, Samuel Eliezer *Edels, the tosafot, and the responsa of *Isaac b. Sheshet. In addition to halakhic problems, he deals with such questions as the kavvanah and joy with which one should perform the mitzvot. Some of Berakhah's responsa were published in S.R. Laniado's Beit Dino shel Shelomo (Constantinople, 1775). Abraham Antibi, one of his many pupils, eulogized him at his death. Berakhah's sons Ḥayyim and Elijah were also rabbis in Aleppo.
bibliography:
Steinschneider, Cat Bod, 1096 no. 5321; D. Laniado, Li-Kedoshim Asher ba-Areẓ (= Aram-Zobah, i.e., Aleppo; 1952), 37.