חזקיה די סילווא

Rav Chizkiyah da Silva (5419/1659–5458/1698), known for all generations as the Pri Chadash after his sefer, was a posek, a shadar, and among the great rabbanim of Eretz Yisrael in the seventeenth century. Born in Livorno in Italy, he went up to Eretz Yisrael at about twenty and settled in Yerushalayim, learning in Beit Yaakov under Rav Yisrael Yaakov Chagiz. At twenty-two he married Chana, daughter of Rav Refael Mordechai Malchi, a dayan, which made him a relation by marriage of Rav Moshe Chagiz and of Rav Ezra Malchi, author of Shemen LaMaor and Malchi BaKodesh. He learned as well under Rav Shlomo Costa and Rav Yehuda Sharaf in Egypt and under Rav Moshe Galante in Yerushalayim, and when Rav Galante was niftar he was appointed rosh yeshiva in his place before he had reached thirty.

Between 5448/1688 and 5452/1692 he traveled to Europe as a shaliach for Yerushalayim. In Amsterdam he was offered the Sephardi rabbanut of the city and declined it; instead he finished writing the Yoreh De’ah portion of Pri Chadash there and printed it (Amsterdam 5452/1692), wealthy Amsterdam Jews undertaking the cost. The volume on Orach Chaim and Even HaEzer was brought out by his son Rav David after his passing (Amsterdam 5466/1706); a large part of the Orach Chaim manuscript was buried with him by mistake together with his kabbalistic writings. Returning to Yerushalayim he founded Yeshivat Beit Yaakov Pereira, named for the Dutch philanthropist Yisrael Yaakov Pereira, whose ongoing support he had secured in Amsterdam, and stood at its head until his petirah.

Pri Chadash weighs the words of the earlier poskim against the sugyot of the Gemara without favor, and Rav Chizkiyah did not shrink from differing with Rav Yosef Karo and the Rema; he treats the Rambam at length, with a certain leaning toward the Rambam’s position over other rishonim. The sefer carried the haskamot of the rabbanim of Yerushalayim, Chevron, and Amsterdam, but its independence also drew fire. The Ginat Veradim of Rav Avraham ben Mordechai HaLevi of Egypt brings that when the sefer reached Egypt the chachamim there forbade any man to read it, whether by fixed learning or in passing — though they decided not to place the ban on Rav Chizkiyah himself, on account of his greatness in Torah — and Rav Avraham concluded that the beit din which had forbidden the sefer could itself lift the cherem. In the event his talmid Rav Shlomo Algazi was appointed rav of Egypt and served there forty-five years, and all his rulings followed his rebbe’s. Rav Chaim ben Attar wrote his Pri Toar to answer the Pri Chadash’s questions on the poskim in Yoreh De’ah, and Rav Yonatan Eybeschutz in the Kreiti U’Pleiti and Rav Yosef Teomim in the Pri Megadim quote its rulings.

Beside the Pri Chadash he left Mayim Chaim, notes on masechtot of the Gemara and on the Rambam, Bina VaDaat on bein hashemashot, and responsa; his chiddushim on the Gemara al derech hasod were among the writings that were hidden away. Among his talmidim were Rav Yitzchak HaKohen Rappaport, author of Batei Kehuna, and Rav Shlomo Algazi. He was niftar in Yerushalayim at only thirty-nine and was buried at the foot of Har HaZeitim. In later generations the sefer was received without argument: selections from it are printed in most editions of the Shulchan Aruch, it serves today as one of the foundation sefarim of psak, and a street in the Zichron Moshe neighborhood of Yerushalayim carries its name.