תּוֹלְדוֹת
Rav Shimshon Chaim Nachmani (5466/1706–6 Elul 5539/1779) was a rav, mekubal and paytan of northern Italy, counted among the foremost rabbanim of that country and known today above all through his sefer Zera Shimshon. He was born in Modena to Rav Nachman Michael Nachmani; his mother was a daughter of Rav Yehuda Matzliach Padova, rav of the Modena kehillah. He learned by Rav Ephraim Kohen Lifshitz of Ostrog, the moreh tzedek in Modena, and afterward in Mantua by Rav David Finzi, father-in-law of the Ramchal, and by Rav Aviad Sar Shalom Basilea, author of Emunat Chachamim. Kabbalah he received in Reggio Emilia from Rav Binyamin HaKohen Vitali, the Rabach.
From Mantua he went to Pisa, where he began teaching talmidim, then to Siena, and afterward back to Modena, where he served as rav of the kehillah and headed a beit knesset. In 5494/1733 he married Devorah, daughter of Rav Avraham Fontanella; their children were niftar in childhood. When Rav Yeshayahu Mordechai Bassan, rav of Reggio Emilia, passed away in 5499/1739, Rav Shimshon Chaim took his place, and there he labored over his sefarim, kabbalah among them. He was a baki in every part of Torah, nigleh and nistar, and in psak his hand was a strict one — a leaning toward kulot, he held, draws on the koach hatumah. He stood out as a darshan, and he wrote poetry as well, some of it printed by his talmidim, among it a poem for the wedding of the Ramchal.
His talmidim included his nephew Rav David Zacut, who became one of the great rabbanim of Italy, and he took particular care that those who went out to a trade hold to Yiddishkeit properly. Rav Shimshon Chaim wrote a great many sefarim but directed that they be buried with him, the kabbalistic ones above all; the Chida brings in Shem HaGedolim that he had heard he was expert in kabbalah maasit and ordered them all laid in his grave. His only son was niftar in his lifetime, and so that a name should remain after him he printed two works himself: Toldot Shimshon on Masechet Avot (Livorno 5526/1766) and Zera Shimshon on the five chumashim and the five megillot (Mantua 5538/1778). His book of poems, Korban Ketoret, was not printed in his lifetime.
On Tisha b’Av 5539/1779 he fell and was injured, and about a month later he was niftar in Reggio Emilia, where he was buried. His will gave his money to the poor and forbade that anyone speak his praise at all — only that he had wished to bring merit to the many, to raise talmidim and to write true chiddushei Torah; rabbanim throughout Italy were maspid him nonetheless, his friend Rav Yisrael Binyamin Bassan several times. Because he had promised that whoever learns in his sefarim would see great berachot and yeshuot, they have been reprinted in our own day as a segulah, and on 18 Kislev 5783 a street in Yerushalayim was named Rechov Zera Shimshon.