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Bidding Information
Lot #    14428
Auction End Date    4/25/2006 2:03:30 PM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Hayyim le-Olam, Part I
Title (Hebrew)    חיים לעולם, חלק א
Author    [Only Ed.] R. Hayyim Modai
City    Izmir (Smyrna)
Publisher    Aaron Joshua de Sagura
Publication Date    1879
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    Only edition. [2], 153 ff., 302:205 mm., wide margins, usual light age and damp staining. A very good copy bound in modern cloth boards.
          
Detailed
Description		    Responsa and novellae by R. Hayyim b. Elijah Modai (d. 1794), Safed scholar. In 1749 R. 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 Zedek (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 R. Ezekiel Landau, who refers to him in respectful terms (responsa Hayyim le-Olam, YD no. 2; Noda bi-Yhudah, Mahadura Kamma, YD no. 87–88). Four years later he returned to Constantinople where he stayed until the death of R. Hayyim 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 Zedek, R. 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 Hayyim le-Olam (1878–79), responsa in two parts, including many written while on his travels; it also contains the responsa of his grandson, R. Nissim Hayyim Modal, entitled Meimar Hayyim. His glosses on the Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim and Yoreh De'ah, and the Peri Hadash appear in the Berakh Moshe (Leghorn, 1809) of R. Moses b. Mordecai Galante (pp. 151–69); a responsum by him in the Ma'amar ha-Melekh (Salonika, 1806), of R. Raphael Abraham Mazli'ah; and an alphabetical poem on the smoking of tobacco (toton) at the beginning of the Avodah Tammah (1903) of R. Joshua Raphael Benveniste. From 1767 R. Modai was on friendly terms with R. H. 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.
          
Paragraph 2    וספר מימר חיים ... שו"ת... חיים לעולם... תורת... ר' חיים מודעי זיע"א... ממני... מימר חיים... נסים חיים משה מודעי...

חלק א: מא"ח ויו"ד [מאורח חיים ויורה דעה]. דפוס אהרן יאושע די שיגורה וחבריו, שנת ועליהם תבא ב'ר'כ'ת' ט'ו'ב' [תרל"ט]. [2], קנג דף.

          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0146768; EJ; M. Benayahu, R. Hayyim 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, Sheluhei, 130–1, 451–5
        
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Listing Classification
Period
19th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Greece-Turkey:    Checked
  
Subject
Novellae:    Checked
Responsa:    Checked
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica