Haim Isaac Carigal

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Rabbi Haim Isaac Carigal (born in Hebron, 1733, died in Barbados, 1777) was, indirectly, a significant influence on the development of Yale University in the late 1700s.

In 1773, Carigal met the Reverend Ezra Stiles of the Second Congregational Church in Newport, Rhode Island, and the two became close friends according to Stiles' records. In addition to frequent intellectual conversations on biblical, historical, theological, and other related topics, Stiles also took advantage of the opportunity to improve his basic skills in the Hebrew language, feeling (as did many scholars of divinity in the period) that this was advantageous for study of the ancient Biblical texts in their original language. When he later became president of Yale College he brought this attitude with him, requiring all students to study Hebrew, delivering addresses in Hebrew, and placing the Hebrew words "Urim" and "Thummim" (אורים ותמים) on the Yale seal.

Little is known of Carigal, other than what Stiles records of their talks. Carigal was born in Hebron, Palestine and became a rabbi at age 17, after which he began a period of world travel which was to last over twenty years; although the reasons for his extensive travel are not recorded, at the time it was common for travelers to solicit funds for the long-standing religious Jewish community of Hebron from the Jews of the Diaspora. In 1752 he traveled to Egypt and Turkey; in 1757, he traveled to Italy, Austria, Bohemia, Germany, the Netherlands, and England; between 1761 and 1764, he traveled to Curaçao, Amsterdam, Germany and Italy before returning to Hebron; in 1768 he visited France and England, in 1771 Jamaica, and in 1772 and 1773 Philadelphia, New York, and Newport.

Stiles describes Carigal at the March, 1773 Purim service at the Newport synagogue as

"dressed in a red garment with the usual Phylacteries and habiliments, the white silk Surplice; he wore a high fur cap, had a long beard. He has the appearance of an ingenious and sensible man"

and at the Passover services the next month as wearing

"a high Fur Cap, exactly like a Womans Muff, and about 9 or 10 Inches high, the Aperture atop was closed with green cloth",

and singing in a "fine and melodious" voice. Thus impressed by Carigal, Stiles invited him and Aaron Lopez, a respected local Jewish merchant, to his home on March 30, 1773. The two immediately hit it off; according to Stiles' records they met 28 times before Carigal's departure 6 months later, to discuss a wide variety of topics ranging from the politics of the Holy Land to the mysticism of the Kabbalah. Carigal also tutored Stiles in the Hebrew language, to the point that they were to correspond extensively in Hebrew after Carigal's departure.

Carigal subsequently became rabbi of Congregation Kaal Kodesh Midhi Israel in Barbados, where he remained until his death in 1777.

Stiles commissioned a portrait of Carigal by artist Samuel King for Yale.