Kaposi

Dayyan in Egypt about 1600. He became known later as the "Ba'al ha-Nes," through a miracle which is said to have happened to him. He became blind. Some time afterward, being suspected of having taken bribes, he called upon Heaven, in the presence of the assembled congregation, to witness to his integrity. "If I have done this," he said, "may my blindness continue forever; but if not, may my vision be restored." "Whereupon," writes Meïr Gavison, "his sight came back to him." Azulaiasserts that he saw Ḥayyim's signatures written both while the latter was blind and after he had recovered. His grave is still venerated in Cairo (see Egypt). Ḥayyim wrote: "Sifre Ḥayyim," a commentary on the Mekilta, the Sifra, and the Sifre, mentioned in Judah Najjar's "Shebut Yehudah" (Leghorn, 1801); responsa, contained in Meïr Gavison's "Teshubot" (still in manuscript), in "Teshubot RaDBaZ," v. (Leghorn), and in "Teshubot Yom-Ṭob Ẓahlun" (No. 129, Venice, 1694).

Bibliography:

  * Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, No. 882;
  * Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, i. 59, ii. 98.



S. S. M. Sc.