Rabbi Isaac ben Judah Rapoport HaKohen (יצחק רפפורט הכהן) was an 18th-century rabbi who lived in Ottoman Empire; born and died at Jerusalem
Rabbi Isaac ben Judah Rapoport HaKohen (יצחק רפפורט הכהן) was an 18th-century rabbi who lived in Ottoman Empire; born and died at Jerusalem, a pupil of rabbi Hezekiah da Silva.
In 1709, due to the difficult economic situation of the residents of Safed, he was sent as a Shadar on behalf of the city's sages to the Israeli communities in Turkey and the Balkans. In Constantinople he corresponded in halakhah with Rabbi Aharon Alfandri of the Izmir rabbis. He also met there with his rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhaki, who also went on a mission for the residents of Jerusalem, and together they published a boycott letter against Nehemiah Hayun and his books.
In 1714 he moved to the city of Izmir (Smyrna) and the locals accepted him as their rabbi. In Izmir he founded a yeshiva, and served as a judge and teacher for about thirty-five years. As chief rabbis in the city, he became famous as an excellent preacher with a lyrical language, and greatly assisted all the emissaries of the Land of Israel in Turkey.
After a journey to Europe in behalf of the halukka fund, he was elected rabbi of Smyrna, where he remained forty years. At an advanced age he returned to Jerusalem, where he was appointed to a rabbinate.
He was the author of a work entitled Batei Kehunah (Hebrew: בתי כהונה, "Houses of the priesthood"). The first part contains responsa and treatises on the poskim (Smyrna, 1741); the second part consists of sermons, together with studies on the Talmud (Salonica, 1744).
May the merit of the tzadik Rabbi Isaac ben Judah Rapoport HaKohen protect us all. Amen