Born in Fez on February 9, 1929, Aharon Monsonego, the son of Rabbi father, began his education at the Em Habanim school, then attended the yeshiva of Meʾir Israel, who trained many generations of rabbis with the old shiṭa—a Sephardi study method perpetuated in Fez and of which he was probably one of the last masters. Monsonego also studied zealously with his father, who encouraged him to become one of the first students at the newly founded Aix-les-Bains Yeshiva in 1945. There he studied with leading Ashkenazi rabbis such as Ernest Weill and Chaim Chajkin. He received h…