Shibbolei HaLeketשבלי הלקט
Rome
צא
Tzidkiyah ben Avraham (the Anav)
Tzidkiyah ben Avraham (the Anav)
1210 CE–1280 CE · Rishonim · Rome
R. Tzidkiyah ben Avraham HaRofeh (c. 1210-1280) of Rome was a leading Italian Rishon and the author of Shibbolei HaLeket — the foundational compendium of Italian-Roman Jewish minhag and halacha. The work surveys Tannaitic and Amoraic sources together with the rulings of Geonim, Rashi, and the Tosafists, organizing them into a coherent practical guide for Italian Jewish life. Tzidkiyah was a member of the Anav family — one of the founding Roman Jewish dynasties dating back to the late Roman empire — and likely served as a community physician (hence HaRofeh).
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Stop 1 of 11210–1280Died
RomeרומאItaly
What they did here
Born into the distinguished Anav family of Rome, where he lived and — after study abroad — compiled the Shibbolei HaLeket, his influential digest of the laws of prayer, Shabbat, blessings and the festivals. He corresponded with Meir of Rothenburg and died in Rome around 1280.
Rome in this era
In the Middle Ages Rome was governed by the popes as capital of the Papal States. Its Jewish community, continuous since antiquity, produced scholars such as Nathan ben Jehiel, whose Talmudic dictionary the Arukh was completed in 1101, and the poet Immanuel of Rome (13th-14th century); Benjamin of Tudela, visiting about 1165, counted about 200 Jews (probably heads of household).
About Rome
Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.
In Rome at the same time
Across the traditions, in Rome at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Tzidkiyah ben Avraham (the Anav)’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.