Chaim Hezekiah Medini

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Chaim Hezekiah Medini, (born 1833, Jerusalem – died 1904, Hebron), also known as the Sdei Chemed - the title of his chief halakhic work - was a rabbinical scholar during the nineteenth century.

Born in Jerusalem to Rabbi Raphael Eliahu Medini, on completing his studies in his native city, he received his rabbinical diploma at the age of nineteen. He consequently travelled to Constantinople, where for thirteen years he was a member of a rabbinical court.

In 1866 he was initiated as chief rabbi of Kara-Su-Bazar (modern day Bilohirsk) in the Crimea. The Krymchaks regarded him as their greatest teacher.

In 1889 Medini returned to Palestine, staying first at Jerusalem, and finally settling in Hebron in 1891, where he served as chief rabbi until his death in 1904.

[edit] Works

• Miktav le-hizkiyahu — Talmudic studies and responsa; (Smyrna, 1865).
• Or Li — responsa; (Smyrna, 1874).
• Paku'ot Sadeh — (Jerusalem, 1900).
• Sdei Chemed — his chief work, a 12 volume encyclopedic collection of laws and decisions in alphabetical order; (Warsaw, 1890).

[edit] References

Bibliography in Sefer ha-Shanah, by Nahum Sokolov, Warsaw, 1900.

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.