The Tishrei Trilogy

Rabbi Moshe ibn Chaviv and his remarkable work, “Sheimos B’Aretz

Rabbi Moshe ibn Chaviv was born to greatness. He was born in Salonika in 1654 to Rabbi Shlomo ibn Habib, the scion of a distinguished family that was originally expelled from Spain. Among his forebears were Rabbi Yaakov ibn Habib, the author of the famed book, Ein Yaakov, and Yosef ibn Habib, author of the commentary, Nimmuke Yosef.

At the age of 15, Rabbi Moshe traveled to Eretz Yisrael and settled in Jerusalem, where he learned in the yeshiva of Rabbi Yaakov Hagiz. Later, he married the daughter of Rabbi Jonathan Galanti, whose son, Rabbi Moses, became the Rishon LeZion, also known as The Magen.

Eventually, Rabbi Moshe ibn Chaviv became the chief rabbi and rosh yeshiva in Jerusalem until his passing in 1696.

Rabbi Moshe ibn Chaviv is primarily known for his masterwork Sheimos B’Aretz. This sefer contains three parts: 1) Yom Teruah on the Talmudic subject of shofar, 2) Tosafos Yom ha-Kippurim on the Talmudic discussions about the laws of Yom Kippur, and 3) Kapos Temarim, on the Talmudic subject of the Daled Minim.

In addition to his Sheimos B’Aretz, Rabbi Moshe ibn Chaviv wrote Get Pashut on the laws of Gittin, and Ezras Nashim on the subject of Agunos. The Chida reports that most of Rabbi Moshe ibn Chaviv’s responsa were lost at sea. However, some of his responsa survived and have been published.

Rabbi Moshe ibn Habib served as the Rishon LeZion and the head of the yeshiva until the day he died in 1696, before his 43rd birthday. He did not live to see any of his manuscripts published. However, his grandson, Rabbi Yaakov Culi, edited his manuscripts and saw to their publication. At the time there was no printing press in Jerusalem and Rabbi Jacob had to travel to Constantinople to try to get the manuscript published. Although he arrived there in 1714, the manuscript was only published in 1725, 25 years after the author’s death. n

Nosson Wiggins (@jewishhistorysheimhagedolim) is the author of two books on the subject of Jewish history, “The Tannaim & Amoraim” and “The Rishonim” (Judaica Press). He researches Jewish History at the Klau Library, HUC-JIR in his hometown of Cincinnati and leads tours of Klau’s Rare Book Room. He is a passionate enthusiast of Jewish history and when he’s not in the hospital working as a nurse, he can be found researching and writing posts for his Substack, “Jewish History—Sheim Hagedolim.”