Aaron Sabaoni
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Aaron Sabaoni was a rabbi, editor, and merchant in Salé, Morocco in the mid-17th century.
Sabaoni belonged to the Siboni (al-Sabʿuni) family of rabbis based in Salé.[1] His sons Joshua and David were also rabbis in Salé in the late 17th century. They wrote many homilies, of which manuscripts survived.[1] Although it has been conjectured that he was named after the city of Sabbionetta, in the seventeenth century he resided in Salé.[2]
Sabaoni was the editor of Moses ben Maimon Albas's cabalistic ritual[clarification needed], Hekal ha-Ḳodesh (printed in Amsterdam in 1653), to which he added notes.[2]
With Jacob Sasportas, Sabaoni participated in the condemnation of the Sabbateans (followers of mystic rabbi and self-proclaimed messiah Shabbethai Ẓebi) for refusing to keep the four chief fast-days on the grounds that the Messiah had already arrived.[2] Sabaoni corresponded with Sasportas when the latter was in Amsterdam,[3] and spent some time in the city as an international merchant.[1] In one letter, he describes the expulsion of Jews from Spanish-ruled Oran, Algeria, on Passover 1669, and the transformation of its synagogue into a church.[1]
