Literatureחיים שאול עבוד

Chaim Shaul Abud

Chaim Shaul Abud was a poet, rabbi and educator from Aleppo who compiled the Baqashot book "Shirei Zimra Ha-Shalem" and founded Torah schools in Jerusalem.

1890 to 1977The book "Shirei Zimra Ha-Shalem"Founding Baqashot singing in JerusalemFounding Talmud Torah "Nezer Aharon"The piyyut "Chai Ve-Ne'elam"

Occupation: poet

Chaim Shaul Abud was born in 1890 in Aleppo

Abud was born in 1890 in Aleppo, Syria, to a family of rabbis. His father was Rabbi Avraham Abud. As a young man he studied Torah, Jewish law and the Baqashot poetry with the rabbis of Aleppo.

In 1907 he moved to Buenos Aires, where he worked as a cantor and teacher in the Aleppo Jewish community. In 1929 he settled in Jerusalem, in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood. He founded and ran the Talmud Torah "Nezer Aharon", set up a loan fund for city residents and gave financial support to the Porat Yosef yeshiva.

Influenced by Arab maqam music, he wrote lyrics to Arabic melodies that entered Sephardi prayer. He was among the founders of the Shabbat Baqashot singing in Jerusalem. In 1961 he published "Shirei Zimra Ha-Shalem", which gathers the Aleppo Baqashot and his own poems, arranged by maqam.

He taught maqam and piyyut as a volunteer into old age. His students included Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and the cantors Moshe Habusha and Yehiel Nahari. He and his wife Leah had 12 children, and he died in Jerusalem in 1977. The city later named his street after him.