{{distinguish|Avraham Kalfon}} {{short description|Sephardi Jewish community leader}} {{Infobox Jewish leader | honorific-prefix = | name = Abraham Khalfon | honorific-suffix = | title = | image = | caption = | synagogue = | synagogueposition = | yeshiva = | yeshivaposition = | organisation = Jewish community of Tripoli | organisationposition = Community leader | began = 1778 | ended = 1795 | predecessor = | successor = | rabbi = | rebbe = | kohan = | hazzan = | rank = | other_post = <!---------- Personal details ----------> | birth_name = Abraham Khalfon | birth_date = 1741 | birth_place = Livorno, Italy | death_date = September 25, {{Death year and age|1819|1741}} | death_place = Safed, Palestine | yahrtzeit = 6 Tishrei 5580 | buried = Safed | nationality = | denomination = | residence = | dynasty = | parents = Raphael Khalfon | spouse = | children = Rahamim<br />David<br />Nehorai | occupation = | profession = | alma_mater = | semicha = | signature = }} '''Abraham Khalfon''' ({{langx|he|אברהם כלפון}}, ''Avraham Khalfon'', 1741–1819)<ref name=or>{{cite web |url= http://www.or-shalom.org.il/article.asp?article_main_id=1&article_sub_topic_id=354&article_id=385&article_topic_id=60&article_topic_name=%EE%F0%E4%E9%E2%E9%20%E4%F7%E4%E9%EC%E4%20%E5%F8%E1%F0%E9%E4&article_sub_topic_name=%F8%E1%F0%E9|title= ר' אברהם כלפון|trans-title=Rabbi Abraham Khalfon|language=Hebrew|first=Benetiya|last=Pedatzor|date=26 January 2004|access-date=8 February 2015|work=Or-Shalom}}</ref>{{sfn|Meddeb|Stora|2013|p=237}} was a Sephardi Jewish community leader, historian, scholar, and ''paytan'' in Tripoli, Libya. He researched an extensive history of the Jews of Tripoli that served as a resource for later historians such as Abraham Hayyim Adadi, Mordechai Ha-Cohen, and Nahum Slouschz, and also composed ''piyyutim'' (liturgical poems) and ''kinnot'' (elegies).
== Biography == Abraham Khalfon was born in Livorno, Italy, to Raphael Khalfon, a wealthy Jewish philanthropist whose family were community leaders in Tripoli.<ref name=or /> His ''brit milah'' was performed by Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, the ''Ohr HaHayyim'', who was visiting Livorno that year with 100 other rabbis.<ref name=or /> He was raised in Tripoli.<ref name=or />
Khalfon became active in communal affairs at the age of 25.<ref name=or /> He served two three-year terms as Jewish community leader, from 1778 to 1781 and from 1792 to 1795.<ref name=brill>{{cite web |url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world/khalfon-abraham-SIM_0012850|title=Khalfon, Abraham|publisher=Brill Online|year=2015|access-date=5 February 2015}}</ref> As part of his duties, he represented the community before the Ottoman Sultan, who wielded overall control of Tripoli.<ref name=or /> Khalfon also served as an advisor to Ali Pasha of the Karamanli dynasty, which directly ruled Tripoli, regarding taxation of the Jewish community.<ref name=or />
[[File:Chaim Yosef David Azulai.jpg|100px|right|thumb|The Chida]] In his later years, Khalfon became less involved in his communal and business interests and devoted his time to Torah study.<ref name=or /> He had a close relationship with the Chida, who lived in Livorno. Khalfon helped disseminate the Chida's works in Libya and also traveled to Livorno to study in the Chida's ''beit medrash'' for a year and a half, from 1804 to 1805.<ref name=or /><ref name=brill />
In 1806, Khalfon emigrated to Safed, Palestine,<ref name=brill /> where he engaged in Torah study for the rest of his life.<ref name=or /> He died in Safed on Shabbat Shuvah 1819 (6 Tishrei 5580).<ref name=or />
== Works == === Halakha === Khalfon authored ''Hayyei Avraham'' ({{langx|he|חיי אברהם}}, "Life of Abraham"), a commentary on the ''mitzvot'' in the ''Shulchan Aruch'' (Orach Chaim and Yoreh Deah) based on the Talmud, Zohar, and commentaries on the Zohar. While he wrote this work in 1780,<ref name=or /> it was printed posthumously in 1826 by his son Rahamim.{{sfn|Skolnik|Berenbaum|2007b|p=273}} It was reprinted in 1844, 1857, and 1861.{{sfn|Skolnik|Berenbaum|2007b|p=273}}
Khalfon's responsa, ''Leket HaKatzir'' ({{langx|he|לקט הקציר}}, "Gathering the Harvest"), was printed for the first time in Israel in 1992.<ref name=or />
=== History === Khalfon produced a history of the Jews of Tripoli from ancient times until his own day, culling government archives, rabbinical court documents, and genizah records.<ref name=or />{{sfn|Meddeb|Stora|2013|p=237}}{{sfn|Goldberg|1993|p=3}} His Hebrew-language work, called by others ''Seder HaDorot'' ({{langx|he|סדר הדורות}}, "Book of Generations"), was an important source for Abraham Hayyim Adadi's historical writings about Tripoli ''minhagim'' (customs) in the mid-nineteenth century.{{sfn|Hirschberg|1981|p=150f}}{{sfn|Skolnik|Berenbaum|2007a|p=370}} Tripoli historian Mordechai Ha-Cohen (1856–1929) liberally quotes from Khalfon's work in his chronicle of Jewish and Muslim life in nineteenth-century Tripoli.{{sfn|Meddeb|Stora|2013|p=237}}{{sfn|Goldberg|1993|p=4}} Nahum Slouschz also quotes Khalfon in his 1927 history of the Jews of North Africa, such as Khalfon's description of the origins of the Tripoli Jewish community: <blockquote>"Among the older people I found a tradition, handed down to them by their ancestors, that at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, one of the generals of Titus, Phanagorus, King of the Arabs, led a number of captive Jews into the mountains, two days distant from Tripoli, and there handed them over to the Arabs. From these mountains they came to Tripoli".{{sfn|Slouschz|1927|p=154}}{{sfn|Williams|1999|p=199}}</blockquote>
Although a copy of Khalfon's manuscript was kept in the rabbinical court of Tripoli, it was not brought to Israel with the Libyan Jewish emigration after 1948 and was lost.{{sfn|Hirschberg|1981|p=150f}}
Other works by Khalfon include a summary of ancient regulations and a collection of ''piyyutim''.{{sfn|Hirschberg|1981|p=180}} In 1800 Khalfon traveled to Tunis and recorded the ''piyyutim'' of the great ''paytanim'' of that country, including Rabbi Faraji Shawat and Rabbi Eliyahu Sedbon.<ref name=or />
=== Poetry === Khalfon composed both ''piyyutim'' (liturgical poems) and ''kinnot'' (elegies), most of which are still in manuscript form. His elegy for his murdered son, David, and his ''piyyut'', ''Mi Kamokha'' ({{langx|he|מי כמוך}}, "Who is like You"), both stemmed from the reign of terror perpetrated by Ali Burghul against the Jews of Tripoli from July 30, 1793, to January 20, 1795.{{sfn|Stewart|2006|p=225}} Before that time, Tripoli's Jews had been benignly ruled by Ali Pasha of the Karamanli dynasty for some three decades. However, a fratricidal war between two sons of Ali Pasha and an attempt by the victorious son, Yusuf Karamanli, to seize the throne plunged the city into chaos. Ali Burghul, an Algerian corsair, took advantage of the situation and usurped control.{{sfn|Hirschberg|1981|pp=153–154}}<ref name=goldberg>{{cite journal |url=http://www.sephardichorizons.org/Volume1/Issue1/Articles_V1I1/Purim.html|title= Purim and its Relatives in Tripoli: A Comparative Perspective on the Social Uses of Biblical Stories|first=Harvey E.|last=Goldberg| journal=Sephardic Horizons|volume=1|issue=1|date=Fall 2010|issn= 2158-1800}}</ref> Ali Burghul imposed heavy taxes and engaged in many acts of robbery and blackmail against the population, and gave his soldiers free rein to terrorize the residents, particularly Jews.{{sfn|Hirschberg|1981|p=154}}{{sfn|Stillman|Zucker|2012|p=85}} Khalfon's son David, who had joined a plot to overthrow Ali Burghul, was burned at the stake along with other Jewish conspirators.<ref name=or />{{sfn|Singer|Adler|1964|p=262}}{{sfn|Mendelssohn|1920|p=62}}
On January 20, 1795, Ali Burghul was ousted by Yusuf Karamanli with the aid of the bey of Tunis.{{sfn|Hirschberg|1981|p=156}} To celebrate their rescue from a modern-day Haman, the Tripoli Jewish community established a Second Purim called Purim Burghul on 29 Tevet.{{efn|January 20, 1795, corresponded to 29 Tevet on the Hebrew calendar.}}<ref name=goldberg />{{sfn|Stillman|Zucker|2012|p=85}}{{sfn|Hirschberg|1981|pp=153–156}} Khalfon's ''piyyut'' describing Ali Burghul's rise and fall became part of the annual liturgy in Tripoli on the Shabbat before 29 Tevet.<ref name=or />{{sfn|Hirschberg|1981|p=154}}
== Personal == Two of Khalfon's sons died in his lifetime – David, who was executed by Ali Burghul, and Nehorai, who died in a plague that ravaged Tripoli in 1785.<ref name=or />
== Notes == {{notelist}}
== References == {{reflist|30em}}
== Sources == *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SfWgAAAAMAAJ&q=adadi+tripoli|title=The Book of Mordechai: A Study of the Jews of Libya|editor-first=Harvey E.|editor-last=Goldberg|publisher=Darf Publishers|year=1993|isbn = 9781850772309}} *{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idEUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA180|title=A History of the Jews in North Africa: From the Ottoman conquests to the present time|first=H. Z.|last=Hirschberg|year=1981|publisher=Brill|volume=II|isbn=9004062955}} *{{cite book|url= http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX6519400018&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=bc48d66e346789f005dca1a9bb1efd20|title=A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations: From the origins to the present day|editor-first=Abdelwahab|editor-last=Meddeb|editor2-first=Benjamin|editor2-last=Stora|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2013|isbn= 978-0-691-15127-4}} *{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/jewsafricaespec00mendgoog |quote=halfon.|title= The Jews of Africa: Especially in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries|first=Sidney|last=Mendelssohn|year=1920|publisher= K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Company, Limited}} *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-spAQAAMAAJ&q=son+halfon|title=The Jewish Encyclopedia|volume=12|year=1964|edition=reprint|editor-last=Singer|editor-first=Isidore|editor-link=Isidore Singer|editor2-last=Adler|editor2-first=Cyrus|editor2-link=Cyrus Adler|publisher=Ktav Pub. House}} *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MbNYAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA370 |title=Encyclopaedia Judaica|volume=1|editor-first=Fred |editor-last=Skolnik|editor-link=Fred Skolnik|editor2-first=Michael|editor2-last=Berenbaum|editor2-link=Michael Berenbaum|year=2007a|publisher=Granite Hill Publishers|isbn=978-0-02-865929-9}} *{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cbxYAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA273 |title=Encyclopaedia Judaica|volume=9|editor-first=Fred |editor-last=Skolnik|editor2-first=Michael|editor2-last=Berenbaum|year=2007b|publisher=Granite Hill Publishers|isbn= 978-0-02-865936-7}} *{{cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.88411|quote=halfon.|title=Travels in North Africa|first= Nahum|last=Slouschz|authorlink=Nahum Slouschz|publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America |year=1927}} *{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=I7UUAQAAIAAJ&q=burghul |title=African States and Rulers|first=John|last=Stewart|publisher=McFarland & Company|year=2006|isbn= 0-7864-2562-8|edition=3rd}} *{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PYit359159UC&pg=PA85 |title= New Horizons in Sephardic Studies|editor-last=Stillman|editor-first=Yedida K. |editor2-last=Zucker|editor2-first=George K. |year=2012|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn= 978-1-4384-2131-5}} *{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=bGwokCBSWkIC&pg=PA199| title=Hebrewisms of West Africa: From the Nile to Niger with the Jews|first=Joseph J.|last=Williams|publisher=Black Classic Press|year=1999|isbn= 1-58073-003-5}}
== External links == *[https://web.archive.org/web/20150209190339/http://www.hebrewbooks.org/7839 ''Hayyei Avraham''] at HebrewBooks.org
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Khalfon, Abraham}} Category:Libyan rabbis Category:18th-century Sephardi Jews Category:19th-century Sephardi Jews Category:People from Tripoli, Libya Category:Livornese Jews Category:Rabbis in Safed Category:1741 births Category:1819 deaths Category:Jewish liturgical poets Category:Historians of Jews and Judaism Category:Jewish historians