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Sasportas, Jacob ben-Aaron

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A Jewish writer, was born in 1610 at Oran, North Africa. Very little is known about his early youth. In 1634 he became chief rabbi of six African communities, which position he held for two decades, when he was obliged to leave the country. In 1654 he arrived at Amsterdam, and a year later he was recalled by the emperor of Morocco, and charged with the ambassadorship to Spain. In 1664 he appeared as chief rabbi of London, which he left in 1672 for Hamburg. In the same year he was called to Amsterdam, and so likewise in 1680, where he went in 1693, to be gathered to his fathers in 1698. He is best known as the author of יעקב תולדות, or index of Biblical passages which are explained in hagadistic manner in the Jerusalem Talmud, being a supplement to the תולדות אהרן of Ah. Pesaro (q.v.). He also wrote against the Pseudo-Messiah, Sabbatai Zebi (q.v.), in his ציצת נובל צבי (Amst. 1737). See Fü rst, Bibl. Jud. 3, 251; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Secten, 3, 168; Grä tz, Gesch. d. Juden, 10, p. 110 sq. (B.P.)