David Azulai Huberman

  • Issue: April 1992
  • Designer: M. Yozefpolsky
  • Stamp size: 30.8 x 30.8 mm
  • Plate no.: 155
  • Sheet of 15 stamps Tabs: 5
  • Printers: E. Lewin-Epstein Ltd.
  • Method of printing: Offset

The HIDA was born in Jerusalem in 1724 to a well known family. From an early age he showed himself to have outstanding intellectual abilities, and was recognised as one of the most eminent Torah scholars of his time. He was the head of a Yeshiva and was greatly respected and admired by all the students. Before he reached the age of 30 the HIDA was appointed as rabbinical emissary and travelled overseas to raise funds for the community.

Though the HIDA spent much of his life travelling, he managed to write a great many books. Both his prolific output and his insight are quite amazing. Whatever place he was in, he sought out old books and studied them; he was the first Jewish scholar to examine the Hebrew manuscripts in the libraries of Italy and France. At the early age of 18, using his vast memory and his prodigious understanding, he wrote an article entitled "He'alein Dava?' ("Something Missing"), in which he showed that some of the greatest teachers had been wrong on account of their faulty knowledge of chronology and bibliography. This article was the basis of later major works. His numerous writings cover Halakhic (Jewish legal) matters, mystical interpretations of the Bible, commentaries on the Mishna, the Talmud, the Passover Haggadah and other works. The books he wrote on prayer, using a Kabbalistic approach, enjoyed wide popularity.

The HIDA lived a long life, died in 1806 and was buried in Livorno in Italy. At the initiative of the late Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim, Chief Rabbi of Israel, his remains were re-interred in Jerusalem.

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Rabbi Hayyim Joseph David Azulai (1724 - 1806)