Nachman Batito

Batito was born in 1845 in Marrakesh, and immigrated to the Land of Israel as a teenager with his family. They settled in Jerusalem, where he studied at the city's Sephardic Talmud Torah. and subsequently attended Tiferet Jerusalem Yeshiva [he]. He was a member of the North African kollel.^[1] When he was 22, he married Zindel, but later remarried to Yocheved Vida Rousseau, having four children.

Upon the death of his mentor, Rabbi David ben Shimon, Batito was elected to serve as a leader of the Western Community Committee [he]. Following the death of Rabbi Raphael Eliezar Ben-Tovo [he] in 1886 (which he lamented in a eulogy),^[2] he was promoted alongside Rabbi Moshe Malka [he]. He was chosen as the leader of the Western Community Committe after the death of the incumbent Issachar Atzaraf [he] in 1892, as was Malka. 7 years later, a dispute broke out in the community between which one should lead. Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar resolved the dispute, and chose Malka as its official head. Batito assumed the role following Malka's death in 1900.

The Great Rabbinical Dispute, during which the position of Rishon LeZion was given to several men within a few years of each other, he was appointed in 1909 to the role following the dismissal of Rabbi Eliyahu Moshe Panigel, serving until 1911. He was a locum tenens on behalf of Rabbi Chaim Nahum, who had returned to Aleppo after the upheaval involving the dismissal of Panigel^[3] (headed by those dubbed "Anti-Pangelistos").^[4] He was also a member of the Av Beit Din in the city and worked to restablish the Western Talmud Torah.

During WWI, the situation for residents in Jerusalem deteriorated and took a toll on Batito's health. He died on August 25th, 1915. His tombstone reads, "Zion, in galut, will weep, and Jerusalem wil give her voice with a double-blowing of the shofar. Abiding by the mitzvoth from the Torah, a righteous and humble man, oppressed in torment, stands in the breach of Jerusalem. The head of the rabbis of the Bnei Marva and Rishon LeZion: the famed Rabbi Nachman Batito of righteous memory."^[5]