MODAI, ḤAYYIM

MODAI, ḤAYYIM
MODAI, ḤAYYIM (d. 1794), Safed scholar. In 1749 Modai journeyed to Europe as an emissary of the Safed community. Passing through Egypt, he came across a manuscript of geonic responsa which he published 43 years later under the title Sha'arei Ẓedek (Salonika, 1792). In 1755 he was appointed a member of the bet din in Constantinople as well as one of the pekidim ("commissioners") of Safed in the town. Following the earthquake in Safed in 1760, he was again sent to Europe in 1762 as an emissary for the town by the Constantinople commissioners, who published four letters on the subject of his mission in order to give it full publicity. After visiting various Italian towns (Mantua, Turin, and Venice in 1763), he went to Holland and England (Amsterdam and London) in 1765, and Germany. In 1766 he was in Prague where he had halakhic discussions with ezekiel landau , who refers to him in respectful terms (responsa Ḥayyim le-Olam, YD no. 2; Nodabi-Yhudah, Mahadura Kamma, YD no. 87–88). Four years later he returned to Constantinople where he stayed until the death of Ḥayyim b. David Abulafia, when he was invited to succeed him as the rabbi of Smyrna. There he remained until 1793. At the end of his commendation to Sha'arei Ẓedek, Modai expresses his longing to return to Safed. His wish was fulfilled and he returned to Safed in 1793. His works include Tiv Gittin (1875), containing the bills of divorce arranged by him between 1737 and 1775 with the glosses of Yom Tov Israel; and Ḥayyim le-Olam (1878–79), responsa in two parts, including many written while on his travels; it also contains the responsa of his grandson, Nissim Ḥayyim Modai, entitled Meimar Ḥayyim. His glosses on the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim and Yoreh De'ah, and the Peri Hadash appear in the Berakh Moshe (Leghorn, 1809) of Moses b. Mordecai Galante (pp. 151–69); a responsum by him in the Ma'amar ha-Melekh (Salonika, 1806), of Raphael Abraham Maẓli'aḥ; and an alphabetical poem on the smoking of tobacco (toton) at the beginning of the Avodah Tammah (1903) of Joshua Raphael Benveniste. From 1767 Modai was on friendly terms with Ḥ.J.D. Azulai; on one ruling – in connection with reading from an invalid   Sefer Torah – they expressed opposing views; the correspondence between them continued until 1787. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Ḥazan, Ha-Ma'alot li-Shelomo (1894), 31a–32a, 39b; M. Benayahu, R. Ḥayyim Yosef David Azulai, 1 (Heb., 1959), 362–6; 2 (1959), 412–3; I. Ben Zvi, in: Sefunot, 6 (1962), 360, 381–3; S. Emmanuel, ibid., 406–7, 411, 419; S. Simonsohn, ibid., 334, 348–9: Yaari, Sheluḥei, 130–1, 451–5. (Josef Horovitz)

Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • ABULAFIA, ḤAYYIM BEN DAVID — (c. 1700–1775), rabbi and codifier. Abulafia, a grandson of Ḥayyim ben Jacob Abulafia, was born either in Jerusalem or in Smyrna. He studied under isaac rappaport , author of Battei Kehunnah. About 1740 he was appointed rabbi of Larissa (Greece) …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • POLITICAL LIFE AND PARTIES — Introduction It was largely due to the existence of the pre state political parties, which had conducted intensive political activities for almost half a century within the framework of the yishuv , under the British Mandate for Palestine, that… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • RESPONSA — (Heb. שְׁאֵלוֹת וּתְשׁוּבוֹת; lit. queries and replies ), a rabbinic term denoting an exchange of letters in which one party consults another on a halakhic matter. Such responsa   are already mentioned in the Talmud, which tells of an inquiry… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • HISTORICAL SURVEY: THE STATE AND ITS ANTECEDENTS (1880–2006) — Introduction It took the new Jewish nation about 70 years to emerge as the State of Israel. The immediate stimulus that initiated the modern return to Zion was the disappointment, in the last quarter of the 19th century, of the expectation that… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • GALANTE — GALANTE, family of Spanish origin which produced a large number of scholars. An ancestor of the family was MORDECAI GALANTE, who was among the Spanish exiles of 1492 and lived in Rome during the first half of the 16th century, dying there after… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • ADLER, NATHAN BEN SIMEON HA-KOHEN — (1741–1800), German rabbi. Born into a distinguished family in Frankfurt, Adler was a student of Tevele david schiff , and became known as an illui (an extraordinarily talented student of Talmud). In addition to talmudic subjects, he studied the… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • SHARON (Scheinerman), ARIEL — (Arik; 1928– ), Israeli soldier and politician, member of the Knesset from the Eighth Knesset. Sharon was born in Kefar Malal and went to high school in Tel Aviv. He joined the Haganah in 1945, and in 1947 served in the supernumerary police of… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”