Abraham Vaez

In the sixteenth century, New Christians from Spain and Portugal settled in the city of Bayonne in southwestern France, close to the border with Spain. In the mid-seventeenth century, they established a congregation, Nefutsot Yehudah, and a cemetery (founded 1660); they were granted the right to practice Judaism openly only in 1723. The first known ḥakham (rabbi) and cantor of this community was Abraham Vaez. Vaez wrote a guide to Jewish ritual and legal matters, in Spanish, for New Christians, who often did not know Hebrew: Arbol de vidas, en el qual se contienen los dinim mas necessarios que deve observar todo Ysrael (Tree of Life, in Which Are Included Those Laws Most Necessary for All Israel to Observe). His moral sermons were printed posthumously by his son, in a collection entitled Discursos predicables y avisos espirituales (1710).