JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

phael’s children were David (died in Damascus, 1907), Aslan
(born in 1828), Polica, and Meir. Meir had three sons: Moses,
Solomon, and Jacob. The son of Aslan was Joseph Farḥi who
died in Beirut in 1840. There is a letter from the Farḥi family
to Moses *Montefiore from 1849 signed by Menaḥem Farhi;
Judah, Meir, and David, the sons of Raphael Farḥi; Ezekiel,
Nathaniel, and Aaron, the sons of Joseph Farḥi; and Solomon,
the son of Joseph Farḥi. In that year Montefiore lodged
in the house of Isaac Ḥayyim Farḥi. The Egyptian conquest
of Syria at the beginning of the 1830s struck a decisive blow at
the family, both in relation to its financial matters and its influence
in the town. In 1834 the family lost its positions in the
financial administration and that of ṣarrāf, and only a few of
its members remained on the staff of the treasury and in the
leadership of the Jewish millet. However, with the return of
Ottoman rule in Syria in 1840, one of the members was again
appointed to the direction of the treasury administration, even
though the family could not regain its former financial power.
During the 18th and 19th centuries the family members were
the rivals and opponents of powerful Christian families and
sometimes found themselves in a perilous situation because
Muslim governors wanted to dismiss them from their positions.
The new rivals of the Farḥi family in Damascus were
the members of Albaḥri family. At the time of the *Damascus
Affair the family lost its political influence and some of
its members were imprisoned. Aslan Farḥi confessed because
he was afraid of torture.
As was the case with other wealthy Jewish families, the
Farḥis also played a role in fostering spiritual life and financial
support of the needy. Ḥayyim Farḥi was a particularly generous
donor to synagogues both in Damascus and in Acre.
He owned the magnificent Farḥi Bible, which was named after
him. After his execution it came into the possession of
the British consul in Damascus, and it was only restored to
the family nearly a century later. They established family religious
trusts for the benefit of yeshivot and *kolelim, supported
scholars, assisted the needy, and arranged for employment in
their offices. They also initiated relations between the Jews of
Damascus and Palestine and those of Constantinople. As for
the relations between the Jews and the government, there is
no definite evidence of their intervention, except for some
vague evidence concerning a tax exemption for the Jews of
*Safed. After the death of Ḥayyim, there was a quarrel over
his estate in the Farḥi family, which began in 1833 and continued
for many years. The struggle was between the sons of
Raphael and their cousins Joseph Hai and Nissim Farḥi, the
sons of Menaḥem. Rabbi Jacob Antebi, the chief rabbi of Damascus,
wrote a decision in 1833, but Moses, the brother of
Hayyim Farhi, and, after the death of Moses, who lived in
Acre, his sons Mordecai and Menaḥem rejected the decision.
They were supported by Rabbi Ḥayyim Nissim *Abulafia of
Tiberias. Rabbi Abraham Ḥayyim *Gagin, the chief rabbi
of Jerusalem, defended the decision of Rabbi Antebi. Moses
Montefiore and Ẓevi Hirsch Lehren also intervened. In 1847
the rabbis of Damascus wrote about the activity of Judah and
farḤI
David, the sons of Raphael Farḥi, against Isaac Ḥayyim Farḥi,
the son of Solomon, who was the translator of the French consul
in Damascus. His relative David Farḥi became the Turkish
scribe of the French consul, and Nathaniel Farḥi was the
treasurer of the consulate. Meir, the brother of Ḥayyim Farḥi,
was murdered in 1822. He had married his second wife in 1818
and she bore him his only son, Isaac Ḥayyim. The interior of
the house of the Farḥi family in Damascus was very elegant.
In later generations the Farḥi family settled in Beirut, Paris,
Italy, South America, and Israel. In 1854 Meir Farḥi was appointed
sherif in Damascus, but was later dismissed. Also in
1854 Nissan Farḥi was appointed the representative of the Jews
in the Mejlis of Damascus.
[Aryeh Shmuelevitz/ Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky (2nd ed.)]
HILLEL BEN JACOB FARHI (1868–1940) poet, translator,
and physician, also belonged to this family. Farḥi, who was
born in Damascus, studied medicine in *Beirut and London
and became a government doctor in *Cairo. In his spare time,
he pursued research into Hebrew and Arabic and translated
many Jewish religious works into Arabic. These include his
Siddur Farḥi (1917), which contains an introduction to the
history of prayer; Al-Urjūzah al-Fārḥiyah (“Farḥi’s Poem,”
1914), comprising the 613 *Commandments in the form of an
Arabic poem; and Majmūʿat Farḥi (“Farḥi’s Collection,” 1922),
which contains the Passover *Haggadah, the Pirkei *Avot, and
the Azharot of Solomon ibn *Gabirol. Farḥi’s verse translations
and his own poetry are marked by lucidity and simplicity. He
published a Hebrew version of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyām
(1931) and, with Nissim Mallul, produced an Arabic translation
of the Zikhronot le-Beit David by A.S. *Friedberg.
A well-known member of this family was ISAAC B. SOL-
OMON FARḥI, the author of Tuv Yerushalayim (Jerusalem,
1842), Zekhut ha-Rabbim (Constantinople, 1829), Imrei Binah
(Belgrade, 1837), Zekhut u-Mishor (Smyrna, 1850), Ẓuf
Devash (Leghorn, 1849), Shevet Mishor (Belgrade, 1837), Matok
la-Nefesh (Constantinople, 1828), Marpe la-Eẓem (Constantinople,
1830), Matok mi-Devash (Jerusalem, 1842), Musar
Haskel (Constantinople, 1830), and Minei Metikah (Leghorn,
1848), sermons for the Sabbath. NURI FARḥI, a native of Damascus,
settled in *Alexandria after having studied in Paris.
In Alexandria he engaged in commerce and wrote a history
of the Jews in the town from its foundation until his own
time, La Communauté Juive d’Alexandrie de l’Antiquité à nos
Jours (1945). Another member of this family, JOSEPH DAVID
FARḥI (1878–1945), became the president of the Jewish community
of Beirut.
[Hayyim J. Cohen]
Bibliography: Ben Zvi, Ereẓ Yisrael, index. Add. Bibliography:
F. Librecht, in: Magazin fuer die Literatur des Auslandes
(1850), 461–63, 503–4; T. Philipp, in: Cathedra, 34 (1985), 97–114;
E. Shochetman, in: Asufot, 6 (1993), 161–209; idem, in: Asufot 11
(1998), 281–308; Y. Harel, Bisfinot shel Esh la-Ma’arav, Temurot be-
Yahadut Surya bi-Tekufat ha-Reformot ha-Ottomaniot 1840–1880
(2003), index; J.M. Landau, Jews in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (1969),
101, 338.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 715