ḤAYYIM BEN HANANEL HA-KOHEN

ḤAYYIM BEN HANANEL HA-KOHEN (second half of the 12th century), French tosafist. Ḥayyim lived in Paris and was a distinguished disciple and admirer of jacob tam about whom he said that he would have defiled himself (referring to the prohibition against defilement of a kohen through contact with the dead) had he been present at his death (cf. Tos. to Ket. 103b). Ḥayyim wrote tosafot to several talmudic tractates and is quoted in the printed tosafot and in many other rishonim. "On him" said Isaac the Elder, "rested the honor of the entire generation." Ḥayyim opposed immigration to Palestine, stating that "in our generation the commandment to live in Palestine does not apply," as it was impossible to observe many commandments connected with the land (ibid., 110b). However, he considered Jewish existence in the Diaspora as temporary. Ḥayyim was the grandfather of moses b. jacob of Coucy, author of the Semag, and among his most prominent disciples was samson b. abraham of Sens. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Urbach, Tosafot, 107–10; V. Aptowitzer, Mavo le-Sefer Ravyah (1938), 250. (Zvi Meir Rabinowitz)