Ben Ish Hai
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Yosef Hayim (1 September 1835 – 30 August 1909) ( Iraqi Hebrew: Yoseph Ḥayyim; ; or Yosef Chaim) was a leading
Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
i ''
hakham ''Hakham'' (or ''Chakam(i), Haham(i), Hacham(i), Hach''; ) is a term in Judaism meaning a wise or skillful man; it often refers to someone who is a great Torah scholar. It can also refer to any cultured and learned person: "He who says a wise th ...
'' (
Sephardi Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
),
authority Authority is commonly understood as the legitimate power of a person or group of other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' may be practiced by legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government,''The New Fontana Dictionary of M ...
on ''
halakha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Torah, Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is ...
'' (Jewish law), and Master Kabbalist. He is best known as author of the work on ''
halakha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Torah, Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is ...
'' ''Ben Ish Ḥai'' () ("Son of Man (who) Lives"), a collection of the laws of everyday life interspersed with mystical insights and customs, addressed to the masses and arranged by the weekly
Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...
portion.


Biography

Hayim initially studied in his father's library, and, at the age of 10, he left the
beth midrash A ''beth midrash'' (, "house of learning"; : ''batei midrash''), also ''beis medrash'' or ''beit midrash'', is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall". It is distinct from a synagogue (''beth knesseth''), althoug ...
and began to study with his uncle, David Hai Ben Meir, who later founded the ''Shoshanim LeDavid''
yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...
in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. In 1851, he married Rachel, the niece of
Abdallah Somekh Abdallah (Ovadia) Somekh (1813 – September 13, 1889) was an Iraqi Jewish hakham, rosh yeshiva and posek. Early life Abdallah Somekh was born in 1813 in Baghdad to Abraham Somekh, himself a descendant of Nissim Gaon; he was the eldest of eigh ...
, his prime mentor, with whom he had a daughter and two sons. When Hayim was only twenty-five years old, his father died. Despite his youth, the Jews of Baghdad accepted him to fill his father's place as the leading rabbinic scholar of Baghdad, though he never filled the official position of ''
Hakham Bashi ''Hakham Bashi - חכם באשי'' (, , ; ; translated into French as: khakham-bachi) is the Turkish name for the Chief Rabbi of the nation's History of the Jews in Turkey, Jewish community. In the time of the Ottoman Empire it was also used for ...
. ''The Sephardic Porat Yosef Yeshiva in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
was founded on his advice by Joseph Shalom, of
Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
—one of Hayim's patrons. Hayim clashed with the reformist Bavarian Jewish scholar Jacob Obermeyer, who lived in Baghdad from 1869 to 1880, and Hayyim excommunicated him. Part of the contention was due to Obermeyer and Hayim's conflicting views on promotion of the ''
Zohar The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material o ...
''.


Works

The Ben Ish Hai () is a standard reference in some Sephardi homes (functioning as "a Sephardi Kitzur Shulchan Aruch") and is widely studied in Sephardi yeshivot. Due to the popularity of this book, Hakham Yosef Hayim came to be known as Ben Ish Hai. The book is a collection of homilies he gave over two years discussing the weekly
parsha The term ''parashah'', ''parasha'' or ''parashat'' ( ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian , Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book in the Masoretic Text of the Tan ...
or Torah portion. Each chapter begins with a
mystical Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...
discussion, usually explaining how a
Kabbalistic Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (). Jewi ...
interpretation of a certain verse relates to particular
halakha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Torah, Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is ...
, and then continuing to expound on that halakha with definitive rulings. Hakham Yosef Hayim authored over thirty other works, and there are many published Iraqi rite
siddurim A siddur ( ''sīddūr'', ; plural siddurim ) is a Judaism, Jewish prayer book containing a set order of List of Jewish prayers and blessings, daily prayers. The word comes from the Hebrew root , meaning 'order.' Other terms for prayer books a ...
(prayer books) based on his rulings, which are widely used by
Sephardi Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
. Amongst the best known of his works are: *''Me-Kabtziel'' (Miqqabṣiʾel): an esoteric exposition of Jewish law providing a more detailed explanation of the reasoning underlying certain decisions. It has been speculated that Yosef Hayim's insistence on having all his works printed in the Jerusalem Sanjak prevented this essential work from being published. *''Ben Yehoyada'' (''Ben Yəhoyadaʻ'') and ''Benayahou'': his commentary on the
Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
, considered a basic resource in understanding the Aggada (narrative sections of the Talmud). *The
responsum ''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars i ...
() ''Rav Pe'alim'' (''Rab Pəʻalim'') and
Torah Lishmah
'. * (reprinted in 1994) The names ''Ben Ish Hai'', ''Me-Kabtziel'', ''Rav Pe'alim'' and ''Ben Yehoyada'' derive from
2 Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...
23:20. He chose these names because he claimed to have been a reincarnation of Benayahu ben Yehoyada, described as ''Ben Ish Hayil'' "son of a valiant man"; the man in whose merit, it is said, both the first and second
Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Accord ...
stood. Yosef Hayim was also noted for his stories and
parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whe ...
s. Some are scattered through his halakhic works, but have since been collected and published separately; others were published as separate works in his lifetime, as an alternative to the European-inspired secular literature that was becoming popular at the time. Hi
Qânûn-un-Nisâ (قانون النساء)
is a book filled with parables concerning self-improvement. The book, directed towards, but not limited to women, is rare since it was composed in Baghdad Jewish Arabic. It was last published in Israel in the 1940s.


See also

*Jonatan Meir, "Toward the Popularization of Kabbalah: R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad and the Kabbalists of Jerusalem", Modern Judaism 33(2) (May 2013), pp. 147–172 *'' Kaf HaChaim'' — a more discursive, and contemporaneous,
Sephardi Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
work of Halakha by Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer. *'' Yalkut Yosef,'' a contemporary Sephardi work of Halakha, based on the rulings of Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef Ovadia Yosef (, ; September 24, 1920 – October 7, 2013) also known as Maran (Hebrew language, Hebrew: מרן) "Our Master", was an History of the Jews in Iraq#Otoman rule, Iraqi-born Talmudic scholar, hakham, posek, and the Sephardi Jews, Sephar ...
. * Yehuda Fatiyah — a student of Yosef Chaim. *Ben Ish Hai,

- The Life & Times of Hacham Yosef Haim by Yehuda Azoulay


References


The “Ben Ish Chai” Chacham Yosef Chaim (1834 – 1909)
ou.org

Eliezer C. Abrahamson *, tzemachdovid.org
Rabbenu Hakham Ribbi Yoseph Hayyim
, benishhai.org

torah.net

ascent.org.il Resources * ( Hebrew language, Hebrew), shechem.org
''Ben Ish Chai'', fulltext
He:Wikisource
''Ben Ish Chai'' audio lectures
(
MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...
)
Les Fleurs de l'Orient: The Genealogy Site
farhi.org *''The Halachot of the Ben Ish Hai'', transl. S. Hiley, Philipp Feldheim. *''Golden Apples: Parables Of The Ben Ish Chai '', Y. Kahn, Artscroll.


External links

* Jonatan Meirbr>"Toward the Popularization of Kabbalah: R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad and the Kabbalists of Jerusalem"
Modern Judaism 33(2) (May 2013), pp. 147–172 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayyim, Yosef 1835 births 1909 deaths Sephardi Jews from the Ottoman Empire Rabbis from Baghdad Jewish mystical texts Kabbalists Sephardi rabbis Writers from Baghdad 19th-century rabbis from Ottoman Iraq 20th-century Iraqi rabbis Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives Authors of books on Jewish law