[fusion_title margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” size=”1″ content_align=”left” style_type=”default” sep_color=””] Yaakov Even Sapir: Rabbi, Scribe, Author, Traveler and Researcher [/fusion_title] By Sara Barnea In the old Perushim (Pharisees) section of the Mount of Olives cemetery, among the tombstones of rabbis of the “Old Yishuv” (the pre-Zionist Jewish community in Palestine), there is a simple tombstone with a modest inscription that makes no mention of the work and journeys of the man buried beneath it. Rabbi Yaakov Sapir, who was the scribe of the burial society of the Perushim (or Ashkenazi) community, wrote several, lengthy epitaphs for the tombstones of the deceased, but did not receive such an honor himself. His deeds and his writings are his only memorial. Rabbi Yaakov Sapir, son of Natan Halevi Sapir, was born in the city of Oszmiana in the Vilna district in 1822. At the age of 10, he immigrated to Palestine together with his parents and the students of the Vilna Gaon. On the Jewish holiday of Hoshana Rabba, in 1832, his parents settled in the city of Safed. However, within just two years, he lost both his father and mother. In 1833, now an orphan, young Yaakov witnessed scenes of looting when Arab rioters attacked the Jewish community of Safed during the Farmers’ Rebellion. He fled to the nearby village of Zeitun and wrote about his experience: “We … Continue reading Yaakov Even Sapir Rabbi, Author, Traveler and Researcher