Shalom Messas

Shalom Messas was born in 1909 in Meknes

Shalom Messas was born in Meknes, Morocco, in 1909. His parents were Rabbi Maimoun Messas and Rachel, and he was named after his grandfather, the judge Rabbi Shalom Messas. On his father's side he descended from Rabbi Raphael Berdugo.

As a young man he studied with his father and with Rabbi Yitzhak Sabag, a judge and yeshiva head in Meknes. He also attended an Alliance Israélite Universelle school and studied with Rabbi Yehoshua Berdugo. At 17 he wrote his first work of Jewish law, Mizrach Shemesh.

In Meknes he ran a network of Talmud Torah schools, and in 1944 he founded the Keter Torah yeshiva. In 1949 he joined the rabbinical court in Casablanca, and in 1960 he became the city's Chief Rabbi. In 1972 he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Morocco and kept ties with King Hassan II.

In 1978 he was elected Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef consulted him on questions of Jewish law. He worked to preserve Moroccan Jewish customs and wrote many books, the last in 2002.

He died on April 12, 2003, and was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.