ḤABIB, MOSES BEN SOLOMON IBN

ḤABIB, MOSES BEN SOLOMON IBN (c. 1654–1696), Turkish rabbi and author. He was born in *Salonika, a descendant of *Levi ben Ḥabib, and went to Jerusalem in his youth. He studied in the yeshivah of Jacob *Ḥagiz and from c. 1677 to 1679 he traveled as an emissary of Jerusalem, reaching as far as Budapest. In 1688 Ḥabib was appointed head of the yeshivah in Jerusalem maintained by the philanthropist Moses ibn Ya'ish, of Constantinople. In the following year, on the death of Moses Galante, Ḥabib was appointed to succeed him as chief rabbi of Jerusalem (1689). His grandson, Jacob *Culi, who published most of his grandfather's works, also had in his possession a number of other manuscripts which he used in his own work Me-'Am Lo'ez (Constantinople, 1733). A manuscript of his sermons is in the National Library in Jerusalem. The ascription to him of the Eẓ ha-Da'at (printed in Or Ẓaddikim, Salonika, 1799) has been questioned by S. Ḥazzan.

He wrote the following works: Get Pashut (Ortakoi, 1719), on the laws of divorce and ḥaliẓah; Shammot ba-Areẓ (Constantinople, 1727), consisting of "Yom Teru'ah," on the tractate Rosh Ha-Shanah, "Tosafot Yom ha-Kippurim," on the tractate Yoma, and "Kappot Temarim," on the tractate Sukkah (Constantinople, 1731); and Ezrat Nashim (ibid., 1731), on the laws of agunah. Ḥ.J.D. *Azulai states that most of Ḥabib's responsa were lost at sea; however some have survived, and have been published, part in Kol Gadol (Jerusalem, 1907), and part in the works of contemporary scholars (Devar Sha'ul, 1927). Moses also wrote a commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud entitled Penei Moshe of which tractates Berakhot, Pe'ah, and Demai are extant in manuscript (Sassoon Ms. 592).

bibliography:

S. Ḥazzan, Ha-Ma'alot li-Shelomo (1859); Rosanes, Togarmah, 4 (1935), 326–8; 5 (1938), 14; Frumkin-Rivlin, 2 (1928), 89–91; M.D. Gaon, Yehudei ha-Mizraḥ be-Ereẓ Yisrael, 2 (1938), 241; Yaari, Sheluḥei, 298f.; J. Molcho, in: Oẓar Yehudei Sefarad, 5 (1962), 81ff.; Scholem, Shabbetai Ẓevi, 1 (1959), 200f.; D.S. Sassoon, Ohel Dawid, 1 (1932), 104–6; Lieberman, in: Sefer ha-Yovel… A. Marx (1950), 313–5; Benayahu, in: Tarbiz, 21 (1950), 58–60.

[Simon Marcus]