GABBAI (lit. "receiver"):(Redirected from YSIDRO, ABRAHAM
GABBAI.) Tax-collector; in modern usage, treasurer of a
synagogue. In Talmudic times the alms of the congregation appear
to have been collected by two persons (B. B. 8b), but the term
"gabbai" seems to have been restricted to publicans or tax-
gatherers. A pious man who became gabbai or tax-gatherer was
expelled from the company of other students of the Law (Yer.
Dem. ii. 23a). According to E. Hatch ("Organization of the
Christian Church," Oxford, 1888), the office of bishop in the
Christian Church was derived from the treasurer of the
synagogue, whose duties are now performed by the person known as
"gabbai." Certain persons in the Middle Ages adopted the term as
a surname, as Azan del Gabay at Tudela (1367; Jacobs, "Sources,"
p. 90), and Abraham Gabbai at Bristol (1194; idem, "Jews of
Angevin England," pp. 347, 371). In more recent times the chief
function of the gabbai among the Sephardim was to apportion the
Finta among the seat-holders of a congrega