Abraham ben Maymūn Yafil (Yāfīl; 1690–1770) was a rabbi and leader of the Jewish community of Algiers in the mid- to late eighteenth century. He was among the outstanding pupils of Raphael Yedidya Solomon Seror.  He succeeded Judah ben Isaac ʿAyyāsh (1700–1761) following the latter’s dramatic departure from Algiers in 1756. Yafil’s task was not easy, since the departure of ʿAyyāsh was a harbinger of the declining ability of religious leaders to enforce the laws of prohibition and permission (Heb. issur ve-hetter) and personal status (e.g., marriage), and portended the remova…