הרב חיים בנבנשתי

Rabbi Chaim Benveniste (5363/1603–5433/1673), known as the Knesset HaGedolah after his sefer, was among the greatest poskim of the Ottoman lands in his century. Born in Constantinople to the distinguished Benveniste family, he learned under the Maharit, Rabbi Yosef Trani, who cherished him and blessed him that he would write a work on the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol — and indeed, at twenty-one he completed his first sefer, Dina D’Chayei, on the Smag. He served as rav of Tire, near Izmir, from 1644, and from 1658 in Izmir itself, where he ruled in matters of issur v’heter and stood at the head of a yeshiva.

His life’s work, Knesset HaGedolah with its companion Shiyurei Knesset HaGedolah, printed in eight volumes, gathers and weighs the halachic literature of the century after the Beit Yosef, arranged on the order of the Tur. It became one of the foundation stones of psak: the Chida wrote that no one qualified to rule should put his hand to any decision without first going to “the Knesset HaGedolah” to see what it holds. His responsa were printed as Ba’ei Chayei, and he also wrote Pesach Me’ubin on the halachos and Haggadah of Pesach and Chamra V’Chayei on masechet Sanhedrin.

His years in Izmir placed him at the center of the storm of Shabtai Tzvi: he stood at first among the fiercest opponents, and for some months was swept into the camp of the followers before the impostor’s apostasy ended the delusion — the poskim regard those months as an error in “hilchata l’meshicha” that he fully repented of, and his standing as a posek emerged undiminished. He was niftar in Izmir (now Turkey) on 19 Elul 5433 (1673).