ר׳ חיים חזקיהו מדיני

ר׳ חיים חזקיהו מדיני (7 Cheshvan 5593–24 Kislev 5665; 1832–1904), commonly called the Sdei Chemed after his encyclopedic halakhic work, was a Jerusalem-born Sephardi rabbi, communal leader and prolific legal scholar. The son of ר׳ רפאל אשר אליהו מדיני and Kalu Vida, he studied in Jerusalem under ר׳ יצחק קובו and ר׳ יוסף נסים בורלא, married Rivka at eighteen and received semikhah while still young. His father's death in 1853 left him responsible for an extended household and prompted relocation to Constantinople, where he taught, lectured and wrote while declining opportunities that would interrupt his study. In 1867 he accepted the rabbinate of Karasubazar—now Bilohirsk—in Crimea. During thirty-two years there he founded schools and yeshivot, issued communal regulations, addressed the distinctive traditions of Krymchak Jewry and maintained an international halakhic correspondence. Most of שדי חמד was assembled there. The work alphabetically synthesizes Talmudic and later legal rules, responsa, bibliographical information and scholarly biographies; its scale made it an important bridge between dispersed rabbinic literature and later Torah encyclopedias. He returned to Jerusalem in 1899. Wishing to avoid nomination as Rishon LeZion, he moved to Hebron in 1901, but after the deaths of ר׳ אליהו מני and ר׳ חיים רחמים יוסף פרנקו he accepted leadership of the community. He taught and completed parts of his work at Beit Romano, died in Hebron in 1904 and was buried in its ancient Jewish cemetery.