Chayei Adam (חיי אדם "The Life of Man") is a work of Jewish law by Rabbi

Avraham Danzig Avraham Danzig (ben Yehiel Michael, 1748—1820; אברהם דנציג) was a rabbi, ''posek'' (legal decisor) and codifier, best known as the author of the works of Jewish law called '' Chayei Adam'' and ''Chochmat Adam''. He is sometimes referred ...

(1748–1820), dealing with the laws discussed in the

Orach Chayim Orach Chayim, (''manner/way of life'') is a section of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of Halakha (Jewish law), Arba'ah Turim. This section addresses aspects of Jewish law pertinent to the Hebrew calendar (be it the daily, weekly, monthly, o ...

section of the

Shulchan Aruch The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in I ...

. It is divided into 224 sections - 69 dealing with daily conduct and prayer, and 155 with

Shabbos Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stori ...

(Sabbath) and

Yom Tov Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...

(holidays). Chayei Adam was intended primarily "for the cultured layman", as opposed to rabbinic scholars, and the work is thus presented in a readily accessible form. In many cities, societies were formed for the purpose of studying Chayei Adam. In this work, Rabbi Danzig collected and critically sifted the '' Acharonic'' material in the field of the Halakha written in the more than two and a half centuries since the appearance of the

. A parallel work ''Nishmas Adam'', published together with Chayei Adam, discusses the halachic issues in greater depth. The two are usually printed together. The scholarship of the work is evidenced by the fact that Rabbi

Chaim Volozhin Chaim of Volozhin (also known as Chaim ben Yitzchok of Volozhin or Chaim Ickovits; January 21, 1749 – June 14, 1821)Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography: Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 347–349; idem, Kiryah Ne'emanah, pp. 156–158; Le ...

, known for his opposition to "digests of halacha", granted the work his approbation (on condition that each section be cross-referenced to the Shulkhan Arukh to allow for further study). The rulings of the Chayei Adam are often cited in later works, especially the Mishnah Berurah.

References

External links

''Chayei Adam,'' full text
(in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

) Rabbinic legal texts and responsa Hebrew-language religious books Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish law Sifrei Kodesh {{Judaism-book-stub