A Sephardic Widow’s Tribute from 18th-Century Barbados to Amsterdam

Sarah Gabbai Izidro

1758

Dedication to very learned, eminent and enlightened
Senhor Haham Morenu Verabenu
Lord Rabbi, Our teacher and master
ABENDANA DE BRITTO
Head of the Body of our
Nation and Congregation of
Talmud Thorah

Eminent Lord H. H.

The widow of the Prophet Obadia when she encounters the Prophet Elisha and the Prophet asked her, “what do you have in your possession?” the sad widow responded bitterly, “I do not possess anything but a small bottle of oil.” And the Prophet with that little bit that was in the bottle managed to turn out a deluge from that oil; and in this way do I say (venerable Lord H.H.) all that I have left of my blessed and beloved husband is in this small work which can be compared to a small bottle of oil, the treatise that he made about the Precepts of the divine Law, ki ner mitzvah, “For the commandment is like a lamp.” I hope that it brings much benefit to Your Majesty (S.M.), as I compare myself to the urgency of the widow of the Prophet; and Your Majesty (S.M.) by virtue to Elisha, accept this little bottle of oil1 so that under the protection of Your Mercy my blessed one can find fame in the world; and so that his name will be eternalized among his moral children, since he lacks physical ones.

Not doubting the humility of Your Mercy, please may it be thy will to take this offering, as it is a precious gift from my husband, of such esteem, and since Your Mercy was the illustrious teacher and instructor of my husband, and for all these reasons I hope the offering will be accepted, and I always plead to the Most High that he guard the life of Your Mercy for many happy years so that the sheep that Your Mercy guides could enjoy the education of such a good Shepherd.

Humble Servant of Your Mercy;
Q.M.V.S.I.P.
Bayonne
10 Heshvan
5518 [1757]

Translated by Ronnie Perelis.

Notes

[There is a play on words here in the Portuguese between the words for “accept” and “oil.”—Ed.]

Credits

Introduction to Abraham Gabbai Izidro, Sefer Yad Avraham (1757 or 1758).

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Barbados in the eighteenth century had a booming sugar economy that drew many Jews seeking the relative tolerance of British rule and its economic opportunities. Most worked as small shop owners, and a few ran sugar plantations. The community built an impressive synagogue complex in 1654 with a cemetery, school, and mikveh fed by a natural spring, and the island attracted learned rabbis. R. Abraham Gabbai Izidro (d. 1755), who served in Suriname, a Dutch colony, and in the British colony of Barbados, composed a poetic review of the commandments but died in London before it could be printed. His wife, Sarah, ensured its 1757 publication in Amsterdam, from Bayonne, where she had moved, and wrote an elegant Portuguese introduction—one of the few surviving voices of a Sephardic woman from this period.

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Creator Bio

Sarah Gabbai Izidro

18th Century

Sarah Gabbai Izidro (Ysidro) of Bayonne, France, was born Sarah bat Michael de Oxeda of Bayonne. Sometime before 1736, she married Abraham Gabbai Izidro, a former New Christian who had fled Spain and returned to Judaism. She was living with him in 1736, as he was serving as rabbi in the Jewish community of Surinam, and she moved with him to Barbados where he was a rabbi from 1753 to 1755. In 1755, they returned to London, where her husband died later that year. Sarah was executor of his will, and among his effects was a manuscript of a work called Yad Avraham (Hand of Abraham), a versified list of the 613 commandments according to Maimonides’ Sefer ha-mitzvot (Book of the Commandments), with commentary. Sarah returned to her family in Bayonne and had her husband’s manuscript printed in Amsterdam in 1758. She dedicated the volume to Abendana de Brito, her husband’s teacher.

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