הרב חיים פלאג'י

Rav Chaim Palagi (5547/1787–17 Shevat 5628/1868), the Maharchaf, was the great posek of Izmir — Chacham Bashi of the city, author of a library of sefarim, and a father to its poor. Born in Izmir to Rav Yaakov Palagi, he was raised at the knee of his mother’s father, Rav Yosef Refael Chazan, author of the Chikrei Lev and later Rishon LeTzion, whom he served in his youth; he testified of himself that from the day he reached understanding until twenty he toiled in Torah day and night without pause. He received the title “HeChacham HaShalem” in 5573/1813 from his grandfather and Rav Chaim Yitzchak Algazi, headed the Beit Yaakov Rabbi yeshiva from 5588, became av beit din of Izmir’s great beit din — forty-five rabbanim — in 5597, and in 5615/1855 was raised to Chacham Bashi, his authority confirmed by royal firman of the Sultan.

His leadership was chessed with teeth. He rebuked the wealthy who shifted the community’s tax burden onto the poor through the meat levy, ruling that its proceeds must feed the needy and those who toil in Torah — “there is no greater theft and violence than this”; he built a Jewish hospital, drawing Rothschild and Montefiore into its support, and turned those same connections to the rescue of the Jews of Damascus in the blood libel of 5600. He taught that a host may even shade the truth to spare a guest embarrassment, warned against tobacco generations before the doctors did, and asked on his deathbed that the poor of the city be hired to say the tehillim for his recovery — that even his illness should feed them. At seventy he resolved to go up to Eretz Yisrael, and his kehillah would not release him.

His sons Rav Avraham and Rav Yitzchak Palagi succeeded him in Izmir’s rabbanut, and his sefarim are learned wherever Sephardi psak is learned.