Jacob Ulma

Born in Ancona, rabbi and poet Jacob Ulma was raised in Ferrara, where he studied under R. Isaac Lampronti. Ulma became head of the yeshiva in Ferrara, served as rabbi of the city’s Ashkenazic synagogue, and, following his teacher’s death, was appointed head of Ferrara’s rabbinical court. A keen student of kabbalah, Ulma founded Shomrim la-boker, a devotional confraternity. He also composed liturgical poetry and poems for special occasions, as well as a drama in verse entitled ‘Eden ‘arukh (1743). This work, 274 stanzas long, echoes and continues the famous Tofteh ‘arukh (first published Venice, 1715) by the mystic and poet, rabbi Moses Zacuto (ca. 1610–1697), which depicts the suffering of a sinner’s soul after death. The two works were printed together in Venice in 1743. Some of Ulma’s legal rulings have survived in collections of responsa. He also contributed to a journal-like publication on halakhic matters founded by Lampronti in 1715, Re’shit bikure ketsir Talmud Torah shel kehilah kedoshah Ferrara (First Fruits of the Harvest of the Talmud Torah of the Congregation of Ferrara), three issues of which were printed.