The Ruling Regarding the Deposition of the Rabbi of Hamadan

Once it became clear to Rabbi Yitshak Abulafia that the leaders of the Damascus community and its Torah scholars were bent on removing him from office, he attempted to forestall this process by issuing a halakhic ruling prohibiting this removal.He described the events surrounding his own position in detail but disguised the identifying features. He wrote as if he were not an interested party but presenting a quite separate case: specifically, of the wish of the Jews of Hamadan in Persia to depose their rabbi, who had served that community for more than twenty years, and to appoint another rabbi in his place. The match between this account and the process described in the last chapter confirms the view that this halakhic ruling, allegedly addressing the issue in Hamadan, in fact concerned Rabbi Abulafia's own deposition from office in Damascus. In it, Abulafia sharply criticized those who organized themselves to bring about their rabbi's deposition, especially his rabbinic colleagues, whose attitude towards him was tantamount to excommunication: