Chaim ibn Attar

Hayyim b. Moses Attar ( Abenattar; * 1696 in Salé, Morocco, † July 6, 1743 in Jerusalem) was a Jewish scholar and Kabbalist in Morocco. Notoriety reached his work Or ha - Hayyim ( " Light of Life "), a commentary on the Pentateuch.

Attar was born into a Sephardic family and was taught by his grandfather, R. Hayyim. Together with his father and his grandfather moved Attar 1705 to Meknes, in 1708 the family returned after Salé. He was trained as a rabbi and married in Salé, the learned daughter of his cousin. Attar was known for his ascetic lifestyle and had numerous pupils and a private house of study. End of the 1730s he left because of the high taxes Morocco. After living in Fez, Meknes and Tetouan in 1739 he came to Livorno, where he settled for some time. He wrote his work Or ha - Hayyim and collected again many students around. 1741, he broke with a group of 30 people, including Moroccan Jews and young, Italian rabbi by sea to Palestine. On the basis of epidemics in Jaffa and Jerusalem Attar lingered for about a year in the port city of Acre, where he founded a yeshiva temporary. Finally Attar moved his school to Jerusalem and founded here the Midrash Knesset Israel Yeshiva with a department for advanced and a department for young students.