[2][3] He was educated at Minsk under Aryeh Löb ben Asher, whose successor as head of the yeshibah of that town he became in 1742.

In 1772 he became rabbi of Posen, and four years afterwards he was called to take charge of the "Three Communities" (Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck).

[1] For twenty-three years he ministered to these congregations, and then retired from active service, spending the remainder of his life among his former parishioners.

How highly his work was esteemed may be inferred from the fact that the King of Denmark, to whose territory these congregations belonged, upon hearing of Raphael's resignation, sent him a letter in which he expressed his appreciation of the service he had rendered to the Jewish community.

[4][5][6] Raphael fought against all modern culture, and on one occasion fined a man for wearing his hair in a cue.