Chaim Hezekiah Medini

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Chaim Hezekiah Medini (1833–1904) (Hebrew: חיים חזקיה בן רפאל אליהו הלוי מדיני) was a rabbinical writer of the nineteenth century. He was born at Jerusalem, the son of Rabbi Raphael Eliahu Medini. At the age of nineteen, on completing his studies in his native city, he received the rabbinical diploma. He then went to Constantinople, where for thirteen years he was a member of a rabbinical court. In 1866 he was called as chief rabbi to 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 going in 1891 to Hebron, where he was acting chief rabbi until his death in 1904.

His nickname was "Sedei Chemed", the title of his chief halakhic work.

Medini's works include: Miktav le-hizkiyahu (Smyrna, 1865), Talmudic studies and responsa; Or Li (ib. 1874), responsa; Paku'ot Sadeh (Jerusalem, 1900); Sedei Chemed, his chief work, an encyclopedic collection of laws and decisions in alphabetical order, twelve volumes of which have appeared since 1890 (Warsaw).

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

[edit] References

• [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=329&letter=M&search=medini This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

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