Abraham Rovigo

Abraham Rovigo (born ca. 1650 in Modena, died 1713 in Mantua) was a Jewish scholar, rabbi and kabbalist. He studied in Venice in the yeshiva of Moses Zacuto and devoted himself to study the Kabbalah. He was one of the main supporters of the moderate wings of Sabbatai Zevi and gathered around him many followers of the movement, like Behr Perlhefter, Mordecai Mokiach and Mordecai Ashkenazi. In 1700–1701 he spent one year in Fürth, in order to proof the press of the Zoharic commentariy of his pupil Mordecai Ashkenazi. One year later, he and a group of followers settled in the Holy Land.

Rovigo came from a wealthy Modena family, and was dedicated throughout his entire life to studying, collecting, and publishing Kabbalistic manuscripts.[1] He was a close friend of Benjamin ben Eliezer Ha-Kohen Vitale of Reggio with whom he had studied Kabbalah in Venice under Moses Zacuto. Scholem also mentions in several places the correspondence about Sabbatean affairs he maintained with Meir bar Hiyya Rofe between the years 1674 and 1678 as a very important source for the history of the Sabbatean movement.[2]

References

  1. Scholem, Gershom. "Rovigo, Abraham ben Michael." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 17. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 500-501. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Dec. 2013.
  2. Scholem, Gershom, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah: 1626–1676, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1973, p. 771. This correspondence was published by Isaiah Tishby in Sefunoth, III-IV (1960), pp. 71-130.

Bibliography