EGOZI

EGOZI, Turkish family, members of which served as rabbis of Constantinople in the 16th and 17th centuries. MENAHEM BEN MOSES EGOZI (second half of 16th century) was a rabbi, preacher, and poet. His sermons, Gal shel Egozim, were published in the printing press of gracia nasi in Belvedere between 1593 and 1599. Ginnat Egoz, a manuscript collection of his letters and poems, some showing considerable talent and of historical importance, is in the British Museum (Or. 11.111). A responsum by him is included in the responsa of Elijah b. Ḥayyim (no. 38). ḤAYYIM, a contemporary of the former, was a member of the bet din of Elijah b. Ḥayyim in Constantinople, their signatures appearing together in a document of 1601. A manuscript of his book on the laws of divorce is in the Jerusalem National Library (no. 119, 8°). DAVID (d. c. 1644) was rabbi of the indigenous Turkish community of Constantinople. He was appointed to be in charge of the congregational property and was in halakhic correspondence with Ḥayyim and moses benveniste . NISSIM BEN ḤAYYIM, rabbi and dayyan, was involved in the Shabbatean controversy which engaged the Constantinople rabbis in 1666. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rosanes, Togarmah, 3 (1938), 33; Scholem, Shabbetai Ẓevi, 2 (1957), 416–7; A. Yaari, Ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Kushta (1967), 140–1, no. 228, 147.