Jacob ben Zerahiah Morali (also Morʿali or Marʿeli, d. 1806) was a rabbi and jurist (dayyan) and one of the most prominent spiritual leaders in the city of Algiers at the end of the eighteenth century and the start of the nineteenth. His rabbinic responsibilities hurled him into the midst of the social and spiritual tumult Algerian Jewry was undergoing at the time. The lines between the  religious leadership and secular leadership (Ar. muqaddam ) were blurred, nepotism and injustice were rampant, and the polarization of the community forced rabbis to identify themselv…