The rabbinical scholar and jurist Hezekiah ben Gabriel Joshua Shabbetay was born in Salonica in 1862. Some years later, his family emigrated to Jerusalem. Over the years he was sent abroad on several missions as a rabbinical emissary (meshullaḥ or shadar) to collect contributions for the academies of Jerusalem and Hebron. Between 1900 and 1904, he served as chief rabbi of Jaffa. He then became chief rabbi of Tripoli (Libya), but in 1908 was appointed chief rabbi of the Jewish community of Aleppo. He was selected for this post because he seemed well suited to deal with the ong…