[Liturgic poet and author of a family chronicle. He was born at Capua, Italy, 1017, and died at Oria about 1060. His Chronicles (Sefer Yuhasin) is an important source for the history of the early Jewish settlement in Italy.]

Shephatiah Before His Death on Rosh ha-Shanah Declares that the Tyrant Basil Is Dead^[100]

And Rabbi Shephatiah was old and well stricken with age; and God blessed him with all pleasant qualities. The Dweller of the high heavens gave him the Torah as a possession, and made him great with riches and immense wealth. He endowed him with a son who was worthy and perfect; the father and the son were faultless. With them was Rabbi Hananel who was great and perfect; they were all steadfast in the fear of God. They were brothers and friends, and were pleasant in their friendship. They continually occupied themselves with the Torah and with the commandments and lovingly fulfilled God’s statutes. They exalted their King with strength and with glory, and magnified their Maker with honor and majesty, and made for their Creator a wreath, and a crown, and a diadem of fine gold. They ascribed strength and power to their Maker, and came in the evening and in the morning to the assembly of prayers. All the days that they were upon earth they bewailed with grief the exile and the destruction, and lamented with bitterness and desolation over the persecution. They cried and made supplications to Him who turns wise men backward,^[101] by whose knowledge the depths were broken up, and who established and founded the rivers and seas, that He should make foolish the knowledge of the enemy, and that He should lay his kingdom waste. They asked understanding from Him who is full of mercy, that the decree of persecution should be brought to nought and be abolished. Because of their cry which they cried to the Highest of all high, the decree did not pass across from the other side of the seas, and His servants who were perfect in His laws He delivered from filth, and dirt, and foul waters: from being made to kneel to the deaf and mute, and from worshipping the blind and sightless, and from bowing down to idols and images. He thundered with the voice of thunders upon their enemies, and was filled with indignation against their persecutors; He delivered His beloved ones from the hand of them that rise up against them; and spared their soul from the coals of broom; that they may occupy themselves with the Torah, and meditate therein, and that they may smell the savor of the spices and perfumes which are hidden and sealed up in the treasuries and store-houses, which are closed up in the Eden of the venerable and ancient fathers. Then Rabbi Shephatiah, the teacher among the wise, yielded up his soul completely to the Judge of the widows and the Father of orphans. He tasted the cup of his ancestors, which the father of the serpents caused all mortals to drink.^[102]

On New Year’s day, Rabbi Shephatiah, being the worthiest man in a worthy congregation, had to blow the horn, for the sake of the glory of God and His people. That day he was feeble, bent down by illness; but all the congregation whispered to him persuasively: ‘Our master that art clothed with light, radiance of our splendor, light of our eyes, blow thou the horn for us; all the days that our God will keep thee among us no other man shall blow the horn in our midst.’ And they burdened him with the blowing of the horn. He stood up, and blew the horn; but he was without strength and power, and the blowing of the horn did not come out in a fitting manner. Whereupon the righteous man cried out aloud unto them, and justified God’s judgment against himself: ‘My children, may this be a good omen unto you; for on account of my transgressions fortune has changed against me.’ He left the synagogue of his congregation, went to his house, and lay down upon his bed. And all the congregation came after him to his bed-chamber. He then turned his face toward them, and thus said he unto them: ‘I am going to my eternal rest, to my lot with the ancient fathers; and I make known unto you, my dear sons, my three beloved sons, that Basil^[103] the oppressor and apostate is dead. He passes before me now, bound with chains of fire, and is handed over to the destroying angels. And He whose name is the Lord of hosts sent for me to go to meet Basil, and to contend against him in judgment, because of all the evil which he had done unto His people, in order to cut off his name and the name of his seed, his root, his offspring, and his plant.’ (And they wrote down the day and the hour. Some days later a report came that Basil who had done evil died; in accordance with the words of the righteous man did the letter arrive. For thus the emperors of Constantinople were wont to do according to their custom; when a king died, they would send an explicit letter to Bari,^[104] and write down the day and the time, which brought the terrible tidings of the king’s death.) ‘Blessed be He who alone does wondrous things, who destroyed him from this world, and cut him off from the world to come. Blessed be His name, and blessed be the name of His glory. Now I am to be gathered unto my people, and I shall go to my place. And ye, my children, the children of my trials, all the congregation of my multitudes, may God be with you. He kills, and makes alive; He is named I Am That I Am, when He brings to life the righteous of Benjamin and the lion’s whelp.’^[105]