Obj. ID: 38182  Emek Binyamin by Binyamin ben Raphael Dias Brandon, Amsterdam, 1753

This text was prepared by William Gross:

Emek Binyamin responsa. [1753], by Binyamin Refael Dias Brandon, published by his brother-in-law, Yitzchak di Palashius and Rabbi Yitzchak di Eliyah Chizkiyahu HaKohen Balifanti. Proofread by Rabbi Avraham Chizkiya...Bashan. Very interesting responsa pertinent to the daily life of the Portuguese community in Amsterdam. In the book is the first halachic query asked by a European Rabbi of a Rabbi in the New World. This is particularly strange as Amsterdam was a center of Rabbinical knowledge.
Benjamin Brandon of Amsterdam asked the advice of Aaron Ledesma of Surinam regarding an inheritance case. Brandon (d. ca. 1750) was a cantor, Ledesma, a physician and graduate of Amsterdam’s Etz Hayyim, served as a rabbi in Surinam beginning in 1737. It is curious that Brandon, who lived in a city replete with well-known scholars, dispatched his responsum to an obscure rabbi in distant America. Ultimately, Brandon disagreed with his correspondent’s decision and issued his own opinion (f. 22b).
bound with 1666 (?)