There are moments in the life of a bookseller that stir the soul in a way only rare manuscripts can. This past week, one such moment occurred when I had the opportunity to acquire a fascinating and unpublished manuscript containing original writings – spanning a range of Torah topics – penned by none other than Rabbi Raphael Isaiah Azulai, eldest son of the legendary Chida, Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai.
The excitement of discovery was quickly tempered by the painstaking work of authentication. With handwritten manuscripts, things are rarely straightforward. This particular work was composed over many years and exhibits noticeable differences in script, at times flowing, at others shaky and frail – likely the result of the author’s advancing age and a debilitating illness that afflicted him in his later years. While to the untrained eye this might suggest multiple authors, a more seasoned analysis reveals the evolving handwriting of a single, ailing talmid chacham.
Handwriting, after all, is a living thing. It shifts with the kind of pen used, the speed of the writer’s hand, and even the writer’s emotional state. Compare the hastily scribbled note to a friend with the formal, careful strokes of a halachic responsum, and you’ll see two very different portraits of the same hand. Identifying authorship through such changes is a delicate craft – part scholarship, part instinct, and all patience.
Rabbi Raphael Isaiah Azulai, a name less known than that of his illustrious father, nonetheless carved out a life of Torah and leadership. Born in Jerusalem around the year 1743, he was the Chida’s eldest child and a close disciple. His father once praised him in a letter dated 1795 as “a great scholar who learned much from the sages of Ashkenaz.” That kind of praise, coming from the Chida, is not handed out lightly.
His life’s journey was one of Torah, service, and exile. Married first to Simcha, the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Asco, he became a shaliach de’rabbanan (rabbinic emissary), representing the ancient city of Tiberias on missions across Europe. After Simcha’s untimely passing while he was abroad, he eventually remarried in Amsterdam, wedding Rachel, daughter of Rabbi Yechiel Shalem and granddaughter of the Sephardic leader Rabbi Shlomo Shalem. There are indications that during this period he may have been involved in the trade of sefarim, a noble pursuit historically, shared by many great rabbis of old.
In 1788, following a recommendation by his father, he accepted the prestigious position of Chief Rabbi of Ancona, Italy. He would serve that community faithfully for nearly four decades, becoming not only their halachic authority but also a link to the towering figure of his father. The two corresponded often, and in 1791, the Chida himself traveled to Ancona for an extended visit with his son.
In 1796, Rabbi Raphael Isaiah was offered the rabbinate of Siena, Italy. Though tempted, he heeded his father’s counsel and declined the position – not out of contractual obligation, but out of moral duty and derech eretz, choosing not to abandon the community that had placed its trust in him.
He passed away in Ancona on the 9th of Shevat, 1826, at the venerable age of 83.
That this newly acquired manuscript – hidden away for centuries – should resurface now is a quiet miracle. It adds another brushstroke to the portrait of a gadol who lived in the shadow of his father but walked his own dignified path. And it reminds us once again that Torah is not only transmitted through books, but also through the faded ink of a faithful hand, across generations.
