Joseph Saragossi

Biography Although Saragossi was born in 15th-century Spain, it is possible that his family did not originate in the Spanish town of Zaragoza, as his name implies, but rather Saragossa (Syracuse) in Sicily. He was banished with the rest of the Jewish community in 1492 and travelled through Sicily to Beirut and Sidon. He settled in Safed, where he became a rabbi. There were about 300 Jews there who had originally come from the Berbers, Sephardim and Moriscos, but they had no natural leader.

When Saragossi indicated his intention to leave Safed, the people of Safed persuaded him to remain, offering to pay him an annual retainer. The respect of the Arab community was demonstrated when their Muslim governor promised to provide 33 of the 50 ducats that was offered to Saragossi as an annual payment. The object of a legend in which a salvation was wrought at his graveside involving the procurement of 500 pure white chickens, he was thereafter called the Tzaddik ha-Lavan (White Saint) or the Tzaddik ha-Tarnegolim (Cockrel Saint.)

At the turn of the 19th-century, Saragossi's tomb at 'Ain Zaitun was the object of a weekly pilgrimage from the morning after Passover (22nd Nisan) until the 18th Iyyar.

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