ר׳ יוסף בן עמנואל אירגאס

ר׳ יוסף בן עמנואל אירגאס (1685–1730) was a Livornese rabbi, halakhist and kabbalist whose שומר אמונים became a classic systematic introduction to Lurianic Kabbalah. Born to Sarah and communal leader ר׳ עמנואל אירגאס, he studied Torah under ר׳ שמואל די פאס and spent an intensive period studying Kabbalah with ר׳ בנימין הכהן ויטאלי, a disciple of ר׳ משה זכות. After marrying Sarah in 1704, he lived for a time in Pisa, where he founded the Neveh Shalom yeshiva and charitable societies assisting poor brides and clothing the needy. Returning to Livorno, he became a communal rabbinic authority and answered questions from Italy and France. His leading student was ר׳ מלאכי הכהן, author of יד מלאכי. In 1710 he refused the Sabbatean propagandist ר׳ נחמיה חיון an approbation and drove him from Livorno; the resulting international pamphlet war produced תוכחת מגולה and הצד נחש in 1715. שומר אמונים, written as a dialogue, defends the authenticity and disciplined study of Kabbalah and became a leading statement that divine tzimtzum should not be understood literally. It was printed posthumously in Amsterdam in 1736, while דברי יוסף, sixty-eight responsa, appeared in Livorno in 1742. He died at only forty-five on 3 Sivan 5490. He must not be confused with the twentieth-century שומר אמונים of ר׳ אהרן ראטה.