Jacob Raphael ben Simhah Judah Saraval (c. 1707 – 1782) was an ItalianRabbi,man of letters, and musician. Saraval was born inVenice.
Saraval was one of the rabbis of Venice who supportedJacob Emden in his dispute withJonathan Eybeschutz. He communicated with the English scholar,Kennicott, on subjects of biblicalphilology. In 1752 he was appointed rabbi ofMantua and many documents in the communal archives bear his signature. During the 1760s and 1770s he traveled to Holland and England on behalf of his community. When the anti-Jewish lawyer, Giovanni Battista Benedetti ofFerrara, published hisDissertazione della Religione e del Giuramento degli Ebrei at the beginning of the 1770s, Saraval rejoined withLettera apologetica (Mantua, 1775). He was also known as a preacher, poet, and composer ofpiyyutim (liturgical poems), and engaged in various branches of secular culture—arts, literature, and music, in which fields he wrote many works. In addition, he translated from various languages.
One of his translations, the libretto ofHandel's oratorioEsther (apparently done at the request of the Jews of England and Holland), is one of the first free verse translations from English to Hebrew without recourse to the traditional meters. The Hebrew text was set to music byCristiano Lidarti in 1774.
