הרב חיים חזקיהו מדיני

Rav Chaim Chizkiyahu Medini (5593/1832–24 Kislev 5665/1904), known for all generations as the Sdei Chemed after his great halachic encyclopedia, was born in Yerushalayim as Chizkiyahu, to Rav Eliyahu Raphael Medini of an old Yerushalayim family; the name Chaim was added during a dangerous illness, so that his initials spell Chacham. He learned under the Chacham Bashi Rav Yitzchak Kovo and under Rav Yosef Chaim Burla, married Rivka in his youth, and on his father’s petirah in 5613/1853 the support of the household fell on him; he moved to Kushta, where he taught children and, though offered a seat on the city’s beit din, preferred learning and writing, publishing his first sefer, Michtav LeChizkiyahu, in 5625/1865.

In 5627/1867 he was called to the rabbanut of Karasubazar in Crimea, seat of the ancient Krimchak community, and served there some thirty-three years — founding a yeshiva, raising up a community that had long been without a rav, and honored even by its non-Jewish neighbors. His only son was niftar in 5628/1868, and in his memory he wrote the responsa Or Li, printed without the author’s name. In Crimea he began the labor of his life, the Sdei Chemed, corresponding with chachamim across the world as shailot reached him from the far corners of the earth.

The Sdei Chemed is an encyclopedia of halachah: klalim, piskei halachah, and the teshuvot of the chachamim of Sepharad and Ashkenaz arranged alef-beit, in eighteen chalakim printed in Warsaw between 5651/1891 and 5672/1912, thirteen of them in his lifetime. It became one of the most used works in the halachic literature; the rights passed in time to the house of Lubavitch, and the Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson, re-edited the sefarim and brought them out anew through Kehot. To those who hesitated over the Name in its title he answered with a kuntres, Be’er BaSadai.

In 5659/1899 he returned to Eretz Yisrael, wishing to be buried in its soil. After two years in Yerushalayim, when his name was raised for the office of Rishon LeTzion, he moved to Chevron in 5661/1901 hoping to learn in quiet; there he opened a yeshiva in Beit Romano, finished the Sdei Chemed, and after the petirah of Rav Chaim Rachamim Yosef Franco accepted, after long refusal, the rabbanut of Chevron, which he carried until his last day. He saw to the sale of Beit Romano to Rav Sholom DovBer Schneersohn of Lubavitch, who set Yeshivat Torat Emet there. He was niftar on 24 Kislev 5665/1904 and buried in the ancient beit hachaim of Chevron; his library he willed to the Misgav Ladach hospital, his detailed tzavaah is printed at the head of the fourteenth chelek of the Sdei Chemed, and his restored home in Chevron, with his study, stands open to visitors today.