Rabbi Yitzchak Abuhav (Aboab) is the name of the Spanish sage after whom the Abuhav Synagogue, one of the best-known synagogues in Tzfat’s old city, is named. Tzfat tradition holds that the synagogue’s ancient Torah scroll was written by Rabbi Yitzchak Abuhav himself and brought from Spain by his followers after the expulsion.
Two great Spanish sages bore this name:
- Rabbi Yitzchak Abuhav I (14th century), author of Menorat HaMaor, a classic collection of Talmudic and Midrashic teachings on ethics.
- Rabbi Yitzchak Abuhav II (1433–1493), head of the yeshiva of Toledo, often called the last Gaon of Castile. After the expulsion of 1492 he led a group of exiles to Portugal, where he died the following year.
Which of them the synagogue tradition refers to is not certain; it is usually linked with the second.
