החיד״א

The Chida, Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai, is the Sephardic giant who was a sage, kabbalist, historian and great traveler. Born in Jerusalem, he was sent as an emissary of the communities of the Land of Israel, and wandered through Europe and North Africa to gather support for them, and on his journeys met many communities and wrote about everything in his travel diary.

His erudition was legendary. In every city he reached he sought ancient books and manuscripts, and his work 'Shem HaGedolim' is an encyclopedia of the great sages of Israel and their books, a foundation for the study of the history of Torah to this day. He wrote dozens of books in law, Kabbalah, commentary and ethics, and is considered one of the great masters of erudition of all generations.

The Chida represented eastern Jewry in its splendor: a proud Sephardi, a deep kabbalist, and a man of the wide world who walked with dignity among the communities of Europe. He was a living bridge between Jerusalem and the diaspora, and between the world of law and the world of the secret, and his grave in Livorno, Italy, was later brought up to Jerusalem.

What do we learn from him? That love of the book and the memory of the generations are themselves sacred service. The Chida teaches that one can be a deep kabbalist and also a man of action who wanders for the sake of his people, and that documenting the great sages of Israel and their books is an act of faithfulness, guarding that the chain not be forgotten, name after name, book after book.