R. Joseph Hayyim ben Elijah ben Moses Hayyim (1833 or 1835–1909), a leading kabbalist and rabbinic figure, was born in Baghdad, where he first studied with his maternal uncle, R. David Hai ben Meir and, from 1848, under R. Abdallah Somekh. He succeeded his father (1859) as preacher, a post he held until his death. In 1869 Ben Ish Hai visited Erez Israel. In 1876 Jacob Obermeier of Vienna, who had come to Baghdad to teach French, insulted the Ben Ish Hai. The community excommunicated him and compelled him to request the rabbi’s pardon. Ben Ish Hai was renowned as a great halakhic authority who instituted many takkanot. He wrote some 60 works on all aspects of Torah, not all of which have been published. He is best known for his immensely popular Ben Ish Hai (1898), homilies blended with halakhah and Kabbalah. His other published works include Ben Yehoyada (1898–1904), five volumes of commentaries to the aggadic portions of the Babylonian Talmud and Rav Pe'alim (1901–12), responsa. He wrote approximately 200 piyyutim and pizmonim, about 50 of which are incorporated in the liturgy of Baghdad Jewry; the rest extant in manuscript.