Meir Mazuz
Meir Mazuz | |
|---|---|
 Mazuz in 2009 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 27 March 1945 |
| Died | 19 April 2025 (aged 80) |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Spouse | Esther Mazuz |
| Parent |
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| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Denomination | Sephardic Haredim |
Rabbi Meir Mazuz (also spelled Mazouz; Hebrew: מאיר מאזוז; 27 March 1945 – 19 April 2025) was a Sephardi-Tunisian Haredi rabbi in Israel, rosh yeshiva, and a political leader.[1]
Mazuz was the dean of the Kisse Rahamim yeshivah,[2][3] and the son of rabbi Mazliah Mazuz of Tunis (1912–1971), who was assassinated. Meir Mazuz served as the spiritual leader of Yachad. He was the rabbinic leader (mara d'atra) of the Tunisian Jews.[4]
Life
[edit]Mazuz was born in Djerba, Tunisia to noted sage and scholar Rabbi Matsliah Mazuz, who was a judge in the Tunisian Supreme Court and the dean of the original Kisse Rahamim yeshivah in Tunis, which he founded in 1963. Following the assassination of Matsliah by an Arab nationalist in 1971, Meir and his brother Tsemah fled to Israel, where they re-established their father's yeshiva in Bnei Brak.[5][6]: 3
The yeshiva became an elite institution that, apart from producing knowledgeable scholars, sought to make them into leading rabbis. It follows the traditional approach to learning done in Tunisia for centuries. The yeshiva later started its own press, Mechon HaRav Matsliah that prints the works of R. Matsliah Mazuz as well as other Jerban or Tunisian scholars, and prayer books and tikkunim based on Jerban custom.[6]: 3 The yeshiva is connected to seven Talmud Torahs for Sephardic children throughout the country.[7]
Mazuz died in 19 April 2025 after a long battle with illness and a deterioration in his health.[8]
Views
[edit]Mazuz espoused a method of learning traditional to Tunisian Jews (though historically it was common to most Sephardic communities, originating from the influential Darkhe Ha-Talmud of R. Yitshak Campanton [1360–1463]) and was its principal exponent responsible for its dominant position among Sephardic approaches to learning.[6]
Mazuz was a forceful advocate of learning Hebrew grammar and of pronouncing the words in prayer and study with precision and clarity.[9] Part of the "Tunisian approach" he taught involves accounting for and understanding the purpose and meaning of every single word of the text being studied.[6]: 6–7
References
[edit]- ^ "Rabbi Meir Mazuz and the battle for Orthodox Judaism". Jerusalem Post. 18 February 2014.
- ^ Sharon, Jeremy (2 February 2015). "Yahad spiritual patron Mazuz slams haredim for supporting Left". Jerusalem Post.
- ^ Sharon, Jeremy (28 December 2014). "Rabbi Meir Mazuz responds to Rabbi Cohen's attack on Yishai". Jerusalem Post.
- ^ "More on Unseating of Eli Yishai as Shas Leader". Yeshiva World News. 22 October 2012.
- ^ Ehrlich, Aryeh (1 January 2019). "Beating the Gun". Mishpacha Magazine. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
- ^ a b c d Ringel, Joseph (2013). "A Third Way: Iyyun Tunisai as a Traditional Critical Method of Talmud Study". Tradition. 46 (3): 1–22.
- ^ Ringel, Joseph (2011). The Sephardic Rabbinate, Sephardic Yeshivot, and the Shas Educational System (Ph.D. thesis). Waltham, MA: Brandeis University. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
- ^ Sephardic Haredi leader Rabbi Meir Mazuz dies at 80
- ^ Klein, Reuven Chaim (9 November 2021). Ivrit's Place in the Dual Curriculum Model of Orthodox Jewish High Schools in North America (PDF) (MEd thesis). p. 99. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
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