The Pinto Family

The name Pinto is first and foremost a place name. It refers to the small town of Pinto, in Castile, on the outskirts of Madrid, from which the family is said to have drawn its patronymic. According to the tradition recorded by its chroniclers, the family had previously borne the name "Gaon," which an ancient Memory linked to the Gaon of Babylon Rav Sherira; it was only at the moment of exile that it adopted, as a family name, that of the locality where it had lived.

This change, tradition ties to the founding event of all Sephardic Judaism: the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, decreed in 1492. Taking the name of a town is said to have allowed them to blend into the landscape and escape the vigilance of the Inquisition. Like tens of thousands of exiles, the Pinto family passed first into neighboring Portugal; but the refuge was short-lived, as the kingdom in turn expelled its Jews a few years later (1496–1497). Family accounts then lead part of the lineage to Italy, to the Papal States, to Ancona, whose Roman rulers had for a time opened their gates to the refugees.

From this double expulsion came the dispersal of the name. It spread in every direction of the Sephardic exile: toward Morocco, the Ottoman Empire, and the Holy Land, as well as toward Italy, the Netherlands, and France. Rabbi Yossef Pinto, the ancestor whose memory the source preserves most anciently, left Portugal in 1497 to settle in Damascus, where Jews fleeing the Inquisition were then converging; there he would prosper while remaining renowned for his charity. Others would carry the name to Amsterdam, to Bordeaux, to Lisbon, and later as far as New York.

Thus, before being that of a lineage of scholars and saints, Pinto is the name of a Memory: that of a lost place which exiles chose to carry with them, making a Castilian toponym the quiet seal of a fidelity.

The eastern branch of the family has its roots in the Iberian exile. Tradition places at its origin two brothers, Rabbi Shlomo Pinto — "the first," of whom it is said that he went to the stake al kiddouch Hachem — and Rabbi Yossef Pinto, regarded as the founders of the dynasty. The earliest dated milestone is Rabbi Yossef Pinto, who left Portugal in 1497 and settled in Damascus, then a refuge for Jews fleeing the Inquisition; a wealthy merchant and man of charity (tsedaka and gemilout hassadim), he is presented by the source as the ancestor of the Rif, and he ensured that his family could devote themselves entirely to study.

Rabbi Yoshiyahou (Josias) Pinto, designated by the acronym ha-Rif, was born in 1565 — the same year, the source notes, as the Maharsha — and died in Damascus in Adar 5408 (1648). A Gaon in halakha and aggada, preacher and author, he served as rabbi of Damascus, with stays in Alep and Safed. Through his mother, he was the nephew of Rabbi Haïm Vital; the source also describes him as a great-great-grandson of Don Isaac Abravanel, connecting the lineage to the Sephardic nobility of Spain.

A student of Rabbi Yaacov Aboulafia, he received semikha from him in Safed in 1617, during the attempt to restore ordination; Aboulafia, it is reported, ordained only two disciples: his own son and the Rif. He succeeded Rabbi Haïm Vital as rabbi of Damascus. Having left in 1625 to settle in Safed, he returned to Damascus after the death of his son the following year.

His body of work is considerable. His commentary on the aggadot of the Talmud gathered in the Ein Yaakov, the Maor Einayim (Venice, 1643), brought him his renown. His other books all carry the word Kessef ("silver") — not out of attachment to material goods, he explains, but as an allusion to the verb nikhsefa, meaning "to yearn" to serve God: Kessef Nivhar (Damascus, 1616), Kessef Mezoukak (Venice, 1628), Kessef Tsarouf on Proverbs (Amsterdam, 1629), Kessef Nimas on Lamentations, the responsa Nivhar mi-Kessef, and the rulings of the Kevoutsat Kessef.

The Rif belongs fully to the kabbalistic school of the Arizal. His uncle Haïm Vital was the principal disciple of Isaac Louria in Safed and the first scribe of his teachings; his cousin and son-in-law, Rabbi Shmuel Vital — husband of his daughter Jamila — edited and disseminated the Lurianic writings. Tradition holds that his tomb in Damascus, where Jamila also rests, became a place of prayer renowned for its miracles, and that Shmuel Vital delivered his eulogy. His sons extended the lineage in Alep: Rabbi Daniel Pinto, chief rabbi of Aram Tsova, then Rabbi Shmuel Pinto.

At the other end of the Sephardic diaspora, a Portuguese branch of the family — still bearing the name de Pinto or di Pinto — established itself in the great Marrano communities of the West. The centers of Amsterdam, The Hague, and Bordeaux were largely populated by "New Christians" who had openly returned to Judaism after fleeing the Iberian Peninsula; monographs link the Pinto family of Holland to the dispersal of the family, with one ancestor, Rabbi Réouven Pinto, having settled in Lisbon.

In Amsterdam, the Pinto family ranked among the notables (gvirim) and patrons of the Torah. In 1673, three brothers — Rabbi Itzhak, Rabbi Yaacov, and Rabbi Moché di Pinto — invited the great rabbi Yaacov Sasportas, celebrated adversary of Sabbateanism, to lead the beit midrash established in their home, where twelve of the city's finest students studied; their sons, Rabbi Yossef and Rabbi David, continued this work. In 1702, the family endowed Amsterdam with its own synagogue. Sasportas himself attests to this scholarly hospitality in his collection of responsa Ohel Yaakov.

The branch also produced notable figures in intellectual and civic life. In Bordeaux, Isaac de Pinto published in 1762 his Apologie pour la nation juive, a reasoned response to Voltaire's antisemitic remarks — to which Voltaire replied that he had not intended to defame the Jews as a people. In the Netherlands, Rabbi Avraham de Pinto (1819–1878), a doctor of law, state prosecutor, and, for twenty years, a municipal councillor of Amsterdam, stood at the head of the Dutch Sephardic community. Beyond the Atlantic, an Isaac Pinto, of the Shearith Israel community in New York, published in 1766 the first English translation of the Sephardic prayers — the first prayer book printed in that city.

This western lineage ultimately connects with one of the most celebrated Jewish houses in Europe. From the descendants of Réouven Pinto of Lisbon was born Dorothy Pinto ("Dolly"), who married Baron James de Rothschild, a member of the British Parliament. A great philanthropist and co-founder of the Yad Hanadiv foundation, she bequeathed the greater part of her fortune to Israeli institutions. The source notes that she maintained ties with the Pinto rabbis of Mogador: received discreetly by Rabbi Moshé Aharon Pinto in Ashdod, she also welcomed Rabbi Haïm Pinto as her guest in London.

It was during the 18th century that the Pinto family took root in Morocco. According to the monographs, the Moroccan branch first made landfall in Tanger, then moved on to Marrakech, where it began to make a name for itself among the kabbalists of the South. But the branch from which the dynasty of tsadikim of Mogador would emerge took a different path. Rabbi Chlomo Pinto, who had come from the Land of Israel after studying in Italy at the yeshiva of Reggio, in the intimate circle of the Ramhal, left Europe at the invitation of his friend Rabbi Khalifa ben Malka, a notable of Tétouan; he married the latter's sister, the Rabbanit Simha, and settled beside him in Agadir. As much a merchant as a scholar, and a partner in his brother-in-law's maritime trade, he prospered there to such a degree that the port quarter is said to have been nicknamed "Ponti," a corruption of Pinto. The exact dates of this settlement remain unknown; tradition places it in the father's old age.

The closure of the port of Agadir and the crisis that accompanied it drove the family to emigrate toward Mogador — Essaouira —, which would become the true Moroccan cradle of the lineage: the young Haïm Pinto, born in Agadir, would grow up there, and the city would preserve his tomb and his Memory.

The Pinto family thus became part of a milieu of rare scholarly density. A few years earlier, Rabbi Haïm ben Attar — the holy "Or ha-Haïm" —, having left Salé following a dispute with his nephew, had spent nearly two years in seclusion in an isolated room of a house in Mogador, hosted by the notable Rabbi Meïr Pinto, vice-consul of France, whose sister had married the commentator; from there he ascended to Jerusalem in 1742. Tradition holds that the same room, filled with holiness, later witnessed the tsadikim Pinto being born and withdrawing there for study, generation after generation. Through his mother, the Rabbanit Simha, the lineage was allied precisely with the Ben Attar family.

Around them shone the great houses of study of Morocco. The da Avila of Salé and Rabat, first: Rabbi Shmuel da Avila, author of the Ozen Shmuel and brother-in-law of the Or ha-Haïm, then his son Rabbi Eliezer da Avila — the "Rav Ada" —, a talmudic genius whose rulings in the Magen Giborim long held authority. Then the Elmaleh, including Rabbi Yosef Elmaleh, the "Tokpo shel Yosef," av beit din of Rabat and Gibraltar, and their descendants settled in Mogador. The Coriat family, which would provide a disciple to Rabbi Haïm Pinto. And, foremost among them, Rabbi Khalifa ben Malka, the "Rakhbam": rabbi, kabbalist and poet — author of the Kaf ve-Naki and the Kol Zimra —, a merchant with ties to Holland, England and Portugal, himself descended from the Ben Attar. It was within this constellation of families bound by learning, kabbala and marriage that the Pinto family took root, before distinguishing itself in turn.

At the heart of Moroccan Sephardic memory stands the figure of Rabbi Haïm Pinto HaGadol — "the Great," also known as "the Elder" (the Har"h). Tradition holds that he was born on the very day of the passing of Rabbi Haïm ben Attar, the holy Or ha-Haïm, and that he was given the name Haïm for this reason; sources place the event around 1743, with another source indicating the year 1749. Son of Rabbi Chlomo Pinto, he had as his godfather (sandak) his uncle Rabbi Khalifa ben Malka, in whose home he was raised alongside his father for twelve years. He is said to have been born in Agadir, though one version, supported by a document, places his birth in Barcelone.

After the family's exile to Mogador (Essaouira), the young man was taken in and entrusted by his relative, the notable Meïr Pinto, to the yeshiva of Rabbi Yaacov Bibas. Upon this master's death in 1769, the community placed Rabbi Haïm in the role of dayan: he became av beit din of Mogador, sitting alongside his friend and associate Rabbi David ben Hazan and Rabbi Coriat — their three initials, it is said, forming the word "Ehad," the One. He trained many disciples, among them Rabbi Abraham Coriat and Rabbi David Zagouri, and employed the scribe Rabbi Shlomo Azoulay. His wife was the Rabbanit Simha; he had several sons — including Rabbi Yehouda, known as "Rabbi Hadan," who succeeded him — and a daughter, Mazal.

His stature quickly extended beyond the walls of the Jewish community alone: tradition holds that he was venerated by Jews and Muslims alike. He taught ceaselessly the merit of charity, to such a degree that it became customary to keep in every home in the city a collection box known as the "caisse de Rabbi Haïm Pinto." Of his written work — halakha, aggada, kabbalah — nearly all has been lost for want of printing; only a few responsa cited by others and some piyyoutim survive, such as "Ham libi be-kirbi."

His reputation for holiness is immense, and it must be received for what it is: a living Memory. The accounts of his sainthood portray him as a "wonder-worker" — sounding the shofar and reciting the thirteen attributes to turn away from Mogador locusts, droughts, and invasions, or fashioning, it is said, a golem of clay to protect the city's Jews, before dissolving it, judging that it was better to entrust oneself to the Creator than to a creature of human hands. These wonders belong to the realm of traditional narrative, not established fact; the fervor they carry, however, is very real. Announcing his end, Rabbi Haïm spoke for five days to his disciples and passed away on the 26th of Eloul (1845), having ordered that no laudatory stele be erected, only his name alone. His seat is preserved in Essaouira, and his tomb, in the old cemetery, remains to this day a place of pilgrimage — the hiloula of the 26th of Eloul perpetuates his memory.

When Rabbi Haïm Pinto HaGadol passed away in Mogador on the 26th of Eloul 5605 (1845), at ninety-six years of age and after more than seventy years at the head of the rabbinical court, he left four sons — Yehouda, Yossef, Yashia and Yaacov. With them, the community would come to regard as hereditary not a dynastic throne, but the transmission, from generation to generation, of the same reputation for learning and holiness.

The eldest, Rabbi Yehouda, whom all called "Rabbi Hadan," succeeded his father. Great in Torah and in kabbalah, a man of counsel and a polyglot — he mastered English, French and Spanish —, he was consulted by dignitaries and foreign representatives through the consulates that Mogador harbored. Moroccan archives report that he may have been consulted by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and received in England by Queen Victoria — a tradition more than an established fact. A man of great charity, he provided tallitot, tefillin, new garments and the means of marriage for the sons of the poor. He died on the 15th of Av 5641 (1881) and was buried near his father, in the old cemetery of Mogador.

His son, Rabbi Haïm Pinto — called "the Small" (ha-Katan) or "the Second," to distinguish him from his illustrious ancestor — moved the center of his activity from Mogador to Casablanca, where the community acquired lodgings for him. He lived in extreme simplicity, dressed as a poor man and among the poor, donning garments of honor only for Shabbat and the festivals, repeating ceaselessly: "take care of the sons of the poor." Having lost his sight in the final years of his life, he retained, according to tradition, a sharpness of perception that earned him the title of "Prophet" (ha-Navi). He died in Casablanca, struck down during the morning prayer, clothed in his tallit and tefillin; at his funeral, shops closed, including those of Muslims.

There followed Rabbi Moshé Aharon Pinto, named by his father in memory of Aaron the Priest and of Moses. He lived in seclusion in Mogador for forty years, devoted to prayer and study, in order — according to family tradition — to watch over the home of his ancestor the Har"h and to maintain daily prayers there while the city emptied of its Jews. After the establishment of the State of Israel, he ascended to the Holy Land and settled in Ashdod, where he founded a vast complex of study — beit midrash, synagogue, mikvé, yeshiva — and caused houses of Torah to flourish in England, in Lyon, in Paris (entrusted to his son David) and in California (entrusted to his son Yaacov). He died on the 5th of Eloul 5745 (1985). Through his sons, among them Rabbi David Pinto and the Rabbi Haïm Pinto of today, the charge and the Memory of the tsadikim of Mogador have been transmitted down to our own days.

From generation to generation, tradition has designated the rabbis of the Pinto house as baalei mofet — "workers of wonders" — and meloumadim be-nissim, "versed in miracles." These words must be understood for what they are: not an account of verifiable events, but a Memory of holiness, transmitted orally and then gathered by family monographs, wherein the devotion of a people has deposited its hope. The accounts of mofet — healings, droughts broken, dangers averted, prophetic dreams — form a genre unto themselves, recounted in belief rather than in witness.

Remarkably, the tradition itself warns against the idolatry of the miracle. The faithful recount that Rabbi Haïm Pinto the Second taught those whom he blessed and who recovered their health to give thanks not to him, but to the Creator: his blessings, he said, acted only by virtue of the merits of the sick person and those of the holy ancestors he invoked in his prayers. Holiness, in these accounts, is never a personal power; it is intercession, a chain of merits reaching back to the forebears.

This is why veneration has been concentrated upon the tombs. In the old cemetery of Mogador, where Rabbi Haïm Pinto the Great, Rabbi Hadan, and their kin lie at rest — the Great having, it is said, forbidden any laudatory stele and wished that only his name be engraved there — Jews would come to pray, lay their supplications, and light candles. Tradition recounts that a goldsmith who had been blind for ten years recovered his sight there through the power of Psalms, and returned each year to honor the tomb; it is also told that in every Jewish household of the city, a charity box — the "coffer of Rabbi Haïm Pinto" — perpetuated his memory and his teaching of the merit of tsedaka.

The hiloula of the 26th of Eloul, anniversary of the passing of the Great, became the heart of this devotion. After the departure of the Jews from Morocco, it was transplanted to Israel, to Ashdod, where the family had established its seat. The faithful recount that at the first hiloula of Rabbi Moshé Aharon Pinto, water sprang from his tomb at the place where his name was engraved and ceased the moment the crowd dipped their hands in it; others speak of healings obtained during these gatherings. Stated as such — Memory and belief, not chronicle — these accounts express the fervor of a community for whom the Pinto remain, in the oft-repeated phrase, among those of whom "the righteous, even in death, are called living."

The creation of the State of Israel reshapes the geography of the family. In Mogador (Essaouira), which is gradually emptying of its Jews, Rabbi Moshé Aharon Pinto — son of Rabbi Haïm Pinto the Second — remains at first the sole guardian of his ancestors' home, maintaining daily prayers there to preserve the hearth of the Har"h. After a few years spent in Casablanca, he in turn makes aliyah to Israel in the 1960s and settles in Ashdod. There, he lays the first stone of a vast complex of study and prayer — beit midrash, synagogue, mikvé, yeshiva — which will become the Israeli heart of the dynasty. His motto, « letaken olam be-malkhout Shaddaï », encapsulates a transmission oriented toward the world. He dies in Ashdod in 1985.

Even during his lifetime, Rabbi Moshé Aharon extends his influence beyond Israel: he founds or causes to be founded yeshivot in England, in Lyon (with a mikvé), in Paris — entrusted to his son Rabbi David Pinto — and in California, entrusted to his other son, Rabbi Yaacov Pinto. In a single generation, the Moroccan lineage thus spreads across three continents.

Today, two sons carry on the work. Rabbi David Pinto has led the yeshiva Pinto in Paris since its founding, at the heart of a teaching network in France. His brother, Rabbi Haïm Pinto (shlita) — son-in-law of Rabbi Meïr Abou'hatséra, son of the Baba Sali — leads in Ashdod the institutions Otzrot Haïm – Yismah Moshe, placed under the names of the tsadikim Haïm Pinto and Moshé Aharon Pinto: synagogues, the yeshiva Divrei Edmond Safra (inaugurated in 1991 and bearing the name of the Aleppan philanthropist Edmond Safra, one of its great benefactors) and the girls' school Neot Esther. As Grand Rabbi of Kiryat Malachi, he has had the remains of four tsadikim of the family transferred from Morocco — before the cemetery was razed — and organizes the hilloulot of the Pinto rabbis both in Israel and in Morocco. A dynasty now scattered between Israel, France, and the Americas has, in this respect, lost none of its unity.

From a Castilian town near Madrid to the yeshivot of Ashdod, Paris, and California, the name Pinto has crossed more than five centuries without ever breaking the thread that animates it: the alliance of knowledge and holiness. The family offers an almost exemplary image of Sephardic and Moroccan transmission. Knowledge, first: the Rif of Damascus and his commentary on the Ein Yaakov, the decisors of Aleppo and Marrakech, the kabbalists of the "brotherhood of lions," the scholars and apologists of the Marrano West — Amsterdam, Bordeaux, The Hague, New York. Holiness, next: the lineage of tsadikim of Mogador, from Rabbi Haïm Pinto the Great to Rabbi Moshé Aharon, whose tombs and hilloulot remain, for so many devotees, living centers of Memory.

What strikes one, at the end of this journey, is the unity of a family nonetheless scattered across three continents. Expelled from Spain, dispersed between the Ottoman East, Europe, and the Maghreb, then gathered again by aliyah and the contemporary diaspora, the Pinto seem to have made of exile not a dissolution but a fecundity: each displacement has left behind works, schools, and masters. In this, their History condenses something of Sephardic Judaism entire — the capacity to remain oneself in every place, around a book and a name.

This Great Book draws on two Hebrew monographs by Ehud Michelson, « Keter Kedusha — Toledot ha-Zahav le-Beit Pinto » and « Ha-Shoshelet le-Beit Pinto », serialized on moreshet-morocco.com, the digital library of Elie Pilo. May they be thanked here: without this patient work of collection, verification, and preservation, the memory of the Pinto family — its dates, its works, its narratives — could not have been gathered nor transmitted.