Ḥabib, Ḥayyim ben Moses ben Shem Tov

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ḤABIB, ḤAYYIM BEN MOSES BEN SHEM TOV

ḤABIB, ḤAYYIM BEN MOSES BEN SHEM TOV (16th century), rabbinical author. Among the Jews exiled from Portugal in 1497, he escaped to Fez. In 1505 he compiled over 3,000 responsa of Solomon b. Abraham *Adret, in Sefer ha-Battim. Ḥ.J.D. *Azulai heard of the existence of the manuscript in Fez. Joseph Samon, the author of Edut Bi-Yhosef, eventually took it to Jerusalem, where it came into the possession of Sussman Jawitz (1813–1881), father of the historian Ze'ev *Jawitz who had emigrated to Jerusalem from Warsaw (see introduction to Berakhah Meshulleshet, Warsaw, 1863). Sefer ha-Battim was published by Sussman's son Abraham, together with the glosses of Isaac Goldman who had also published Adret's novellae on tractate Menaḥot. Ḥabib's characteristic signature: "Ḥayyim b. Moses ibn Habib whose knees did not kneel to Baal, nor to fire and wood," is probably an allusion to his flight from Portugal.

bibliography:

Fuenn, Keneset, 355; J.M. Toledano, Ner ha-Ma'arav (1911), 86; Azulai, 2 (1852), 21 no. 131.

[Simon Marcus]

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