Commentators:R. Chayyim b. Atar (Or HaChayyim)/0

R. Chayyim b. Atar (Or HaChayyim)

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Or HaChayyim

Name	R. Chayyim b. Moshe ibn Atar ר' חיים בן משה אבן עטר
Dates	1696-1743
Location	Morocco / Eretz Yisrael
Works	Or HaChayyim on Torah
Exegetical Characteristics
Influenced by
Impacted on

Background¹

Life

• Name – 
  • Hebrew name – ר' חיים בן משה אבן עטר²
  • _ name – 
• Dates – 1696–1743
• Location – Born in Salé, Morocco, moved to Meknes, Algiers, Leghorn, Akko, and Jerusalem. Traveled extensively throughout Italy.³
• Occupation – 
• After studying Torah in his youth, R. Chayyim entered a business partnership with family members, while also studying and teaching Torah.
• Upon moving to Leghorn on his way to Eretz Yisrael, he attracted many students and preached to large audiences.⁴ 
• In Eretz Yisrael, he established yeshivot at Akko and Jerusalem. He gained renown as both a powerful intellect and an exceedingly pious and holy individual.⁵
• Family – R. Chayyim had two wives, one of whom was the daughter of R. Moshe ben Shem-Tov ibn Atar, his great uncle's son, who was a wealthy businessman.
• Teachers – R. Chayyim studied with his grandfather, R. Chayyim ibn Atar the Elder, who was a prominent yeshivah head in Salé.
• Contemporaries – R. Shemuel ben Elbaz,⁶ R. Yisrael Baal Shem Tov.⁷
• Students – R. David Chasan,⁸ R. Shem Tov Gabbai, R. Chayyim Yosef David Azulay (Chida),⁹ R. Moshe Franco, R. Avraham Yishmael Sangvinett¹⁰
• Time period –
• R. Chayyim mentions throughout his works the difficulties the Jews faced in Morocco in his day, including exorbitant taxes and other persecutions inflicted by the authorities on the Jews.¹¹
• Much of R. Chayyim's scholarly work was accomplished during these trying times, and despite personal troubles that included great amounts of wearying travel and loss of all personal wealth.^12 13
• During the first half of the eighteenth century, the Jewish community was still feeling the effects of the Sabbatean movement, especially in R. Chayyim's hometown of Salé. Among scholars of the day, this contributed to the questioning of the place of Kabbalah studies, and a corresponding rise in interest in peshat.¹⁴
  

Works

• Biblical commentaries – Ohr HaChayyim – a commentary on the entire Torah,¹⁵ Rishon LeTzion¹⁶
• Rabbinics – 
  • Talmudic novellae – Chefetz Hashem¹⁷
  • Halakhic codes¹⁸ – Peri To'ar¹⁹
  • Responses to the works of others – 
  • Responsa – One responsum has been published, in Benei Yehudah (Leghorn, 1758), responsum 47, and several are extant only in manuscript.
• Jewish thought – 
• Commonly misattributed to – 

Torah Commentary

Characteristics

• Verse by verse / Topical – 
• Genre – 
• Structure – 
• Language – 

Methods

• – 

Themes

• – 

Textual Issues

• Manuscripts – 
• Printings – Ohr HaChayyim was first printed in Venice in 1742, together with the Torah, Targum, and Rashi. Some later editions included only Ohr HaChayyim. The Piotrkow 1889 edition suffered from extensive censorship, with certain phrases, or entire passages removed.²⁰
• Textual layers – Ohr HaChayyim contains several layers of commentaries collected over years of teaching Parashat Hashavua, and only later gathered together for printing.²¹

Sources

Significant Influences

• Earlier Sources – 
• Teachers – 
• Foils – 

Occasional Usage

Possible Relationship

Impact

Later exegetes

Supercommentaries

¹ This section incorporates information from E. Touitou, רבי חיים בן-אטר פירושו אור החיים על התורה (Jerusalem, 2012), and the Encyclopedia Judaica entry Attar, Hayyim Ben Moses.

² The word "attar" is Arabic for "apothecary" or "spice-dealer." It was used (sometimes in conjunction with "ibn") as a surname for a prominent North African Jewish family, as well as for Sephardic families in other communities. The name variously appears also as Benatar, Abenatar, and Abiatar. See Jewish Encyclopedia entry Attar, Ibn.

³ In an attempt to convince Jews to move with him to the Land of Israel.

⁴ In Leghorn, R. Chayyim achieved a popularity and renown that he never achieved in his home country. Scholars proffer various theories as to why he never achieved great prominence in Morocco. Y. Toledano (נר המערב (Jerusalem, 1911): 154) is of the opinion that conflicts within his family and among others regarding money matters prevented him from gaining recognition. E. Touitou (רבי חיים: 16) surmises, based on R. Chayyim's Torah commentary and other writings, that R. Chayyim's preaching style involved sharp criticism - even of leaders and Torah scholars - and thus may have won him too many opponents.

⁵ R. Chayyim displayed a propensity for asceticism (he is reported, for example, to have fasted for three consecutive days before Purim (see Toledano, נר המערב: 155)), and a tendency toward strict interpretation of Halakhah (he took controversial positions against most Moroccan rabbis regarding certain kashrut practices). According to R. Reuven Margoliot, his abundant criticism of Peri Chadash was due to the latter's tendency to rule leniently (see R. Margoliot, תולדות רבנו חיים בן עטר (Lemberg, 1928): 30, note 14).

⁶ R. Chayyim consulted with him before publishing many of the passages in Peri To'ar.

⁷ According to Chassidic legend, before R. Chayyim's sudden death, R. Yisrael had planned to go study in R. Chayyim's yeshivah in Jerusalem.

⁸ R. David was among the students who published Rishon Letzion after R. Chayyim's death, see below.

⁹ Despite studying under R. Chayyim ibn Attar for less than a year, Chida cites more commentaries and teachings from him than from any other of his teachers. See M. Benayahu, ר' חיים יוסף דוד אזולאי (Jerusalem, 1959): 21, and Touitou, רבי חיים: 15.

¹⁰ Rabbis Franco and Sangvinetti describe in their writings the journey to Eretz Yisrael of R. Chayyim and his disciples.

¹¹ See Touitou, R. Chayyim: 20, 24-25.

¹² His troubles led to a lack of time for editing his works, which impacted their final form. Ohr HaChayyim, for example, contains many inaccurate quotations from Talmudic literature, and sometimes has the feel of a patchwork of disparate commentaries thrown together without a unified, organic flow. See Touitou, R. Chayyim: 24-37.

¹³ Ohr HaChayyim, for example, contains many inaccurate quotations from Talmudic literature, and sometimes has the feel of a patchwork of disparate commentaries thrown together with minimal effort to create a unified, organic flow. See Touitou, R. Chayyim: 24-37.

¹⁴ See Touitou, R. Chayyim: 41-46.

¹⁵ Venice, 1742. This commentary is published in standard Mikraot Gedolot editions and has enjoyed extremely wide influence. It was in heavy circulation in Germany and Poland, studied especially by the Chasidim. The commentary originated as public sermons, which R. Chayyim delivered two or three times a day, some to scholarly audiences and some to the masses. This helps explain the diverse styles of exegesis within the commentary. Commentaries quite distant from the plain meaning of the verses – on levels of 'derash' and 'remez' – likely originated in his more popular lectures, while his comments taking a peshat approach, or Kabbalistic ('sod') view, were directed at more knowledgeable audiences, or were simply his personal researches. See Touitou, R. Chayyim: 24-37.

¹⁶ Constantinople, 1750. This work was published posthumously by students based on R. Chayyim's notes of the studies that took place in his yeshivah in Jerusalem. This work includes commentaries to some verses from the Prophets, the five megillot, Tehillim, Mishlei, and Iyyov, as well as novellae on Shulchan Arukh and Mishneh Torah.

¹⁷ Amsterdam 1742. Including commentaries to the Talmudic tractates Berakhot, Shabbat, Horiyot, and Chulin. In his introduction to this work, R. Chayyim writes that he abandoned further Talmud commentary in favor of his true desire – to complete his commentary to Shulchan Arukh. He also mentions a plan (never completed) to author commentaries to all twenty-four books of the Bible.

¹⁸ See above regarding the work Rishon LeTzion.

¹⁹ Amsterdam 1742. A commentary to Shulchan Arukh Yoreh De'ah. A main feature of this work is critique of Peri Chadash.

²⁰ These included, for example, passages lamenting the Exile, disparaging Christianity, or criticizing Jews who abandoned Judaism. See Touitou, R. Chayyim:253-257.

²¹ See Touitou, R. Chayyim: 24-37.