Jacob Tsahalon

Jacob ben Isaac Tsahalon was born in Rome. He was appointed as rabbi of Ferrara in 1682. Tsahalon, who studied medicine, is best known for his medical manual, Otsar ha-ḥayim (Treasury of Life), one-third of a much larger work, Otsar ha-ḥokhmot (Treasury of the Sciences). Otsar ha-ḥayim contains thirteen parts, though the last, concerning mental illnesses, was never published due to financial difficulties. In Otsar ha-ḥayim, Tsahalon stressed the ethical components of the physician’s task, offering practical advice. Tsahalon wrote numerous responsa and translated a work by Thomas Aquinas into Hebrew. In his abridgement of Ḥovot ha-levavot (Duties of the Heart), which he divided into thirty parts for daily reading, he mentions eight further works that were never printed. He was the first rabbi in Italy to emphasize the importance of preaching in the synagogues; during the 1656 plague in Rome (when his synagogue was closed), Tsahalon preached from his window. Many of his sermons have survived in manuscript form.