Obadiah of Bertinoro

[4] Obadiah was a student of Joseph Colon Trabotto[5] and became rabbi in Bertinoro, a town in the modern province of Forlì-Cesena, whence he derived his by-name, and in Castello.

[6] On 17 December 1489, he writes that he had moved to Hebron where he found the atmosphere much more conducive and a small Jewish community numbering 20 households who were of a better temperament than those in Jerusalem, and where they lived along one alleyway.

His first care was to raise the intellectual plane of the community, and for this purpose, he interested the younger generation in the study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature, and he delivered sermons every other Shabbat in Hebrew.

His reputation spread widely; not only was he accepted as a rabbinical authority, but the Muslim population frequently asked him to decide judicial cases.

He harshly reproved the rabbis for exacting fees for services at weddings and divorces, believing it their duty to perform religious ceremonies without monetary compensation.

Such study grew vastly in popularity in the late 16th century, aided by the spread of Bertinoro's accessible Hebrew Mishnah commentary.

For example, he studied attentively the conditions of the Karaites in Alexandria, and did not hesitate to praise them for the possession of the very virtues which the Rabbanites denied to them, such as generosity and liberality.