AMARILLO, ḤAYYIM MOSES BEN SOLOMON

AMARILLO, ḤAYYIM MOSES BEN SOLOMON (1695–1748), halakhic authority and preacher; brother of Aaron *Amarillo. Born in Salonika, Ḥayyim Moses studied under his father Solomon, who before his death appointed him his successor as preacher in the Talmud Torah congregation. The community, however, opposed this appointment and on the death of Solomon they prevailed upon *Joseph David, author of Beit David, to accept the position. Ḥayyim Moses filled many posts in Salonika, teaching in his father's yeshivah and enacting local takkanot. With the outbreak of plague in 1724 he fled. In 1733 he was in Constantinople. Upon Joseph David's death in 1736, Ḥayyim Moses was appointed one of the three chief rabbis. Amarillo was a prolific writer and the following of his works have been published: 1) Devar Moshe in three parts (Salonika, 1742, 1743, 1750), responsa. The laws of divorce, which constituted sections of parts 1 and 3, were published as Simḥat Moshe (Leghorn, 1868); (2) Halakhah le-Moshe in two parts (Salonika, 1752), on the fourth book of Maimonides' Yad, Nashim. At the end of each chapter he gives a précis of the laws with explanations; (3) Yad Moshe (ibid., 1751), sermons. He also edited his father's books, Penei Shelomo (1717) and Kerem Shelomo (1719), and also wrote an introduction to the responsa, Edut be-Ya'akov (Salonika, 1720), of Jacob di *Boton.

bibliography:

D.A. Pipano, Shalshelet Rabbanei Saloniki ve-Rabbanei Sofia (1925), 7a; M.S. Molcho, Be-Veit ha-Almin shel Yehudei Saloniki, 2 (1932), 15; Rosanes, Togarmah, 5 (1938), 23–24; M. Benayahu, in: Aresheth, 1 (1958), 226; I.S. Emmanuel, Maẓẓevot Saloniki, 2 (1968), nos. 1445, 1517.