ר׳ חיים בן עטר (אור החיים הקדוש)

ר׳ חיים בן משה בן עטר (1696–1743), universally known from his Torah commentary as the אור החיים הקדוש, was a Moroccan Sephardi Torah commentator, halakhist, Talmudist, preacher and kabbalist. Born in Salé, he learned first from his grandfather and namesake ר׳ חיים בן עטר הזקן. Political insecurity took the family to Meknes during his childhood, after which he taught in Salé and later Fez. Economic pressure, famine and his aspiration to establish a major academy in the Land of Israel shaped his departure from Morocco. After passing through Algiers, he built a circle of patrons and students in Livorno, arranged publication of his writings in Amsterdam and Venice, and sailed with his wives and roughly thirty disciples to Acre in 1741. Epidemics delayed entry into Jerusalem, so the group spent about a year in the Galilee before settling there in 1742. In Jerusalem he founded מדרש כנסת ישראל, with divisions for advanced revealed Torah and kabbalistic study; ר׳ חיים יוסף דוד אזולאי was among the scholars associated with his academy. He died after less than a year in Jerusalem and was buried on the Mount of Olives. His אור החיים combines close textual interpretation, halakhic reasoning, homily and kabbalistic theology and became especially influential across Sephardi, North African and Hasidic communities. Miraculous stories and an intended meeting with ר׳ ישראל בעל שם טוב belong to later devotional tradition and are not treated here as independently documented travel.