ר׳ חיים יוסף דוד אזולאי

ר׳ חיים יוסף דוד אזולאי (1724–1806), universally known by the acronym החיד״א, was a Jerusalem-born Sephardi halakhist, kabbalist, emissary, bibliographer and one of the eighteenth century's most prolific rabbinic authors. Descended from ר׳ אברהם אזולאי, he studied in Jerusalem with ר׳ יונה נבון, ר׳ חיים בן עטר, ר׳ יצחק הכהן רפפורט and kabbalists associated with the Bet El circle, including ר׳ שלום שרעבי. Hebron's community selected him as a shadar, and his missions of 1753–58 and 1772/73–78 took him through Egypt, North Africa, Italy, Germany, Holland, England and France. His diary, later printed as מעגל טוב, records communities, politics, personalities, libraries and manuscripts with unusual immediacy. These journeys supplied evidence for שם הגדולים, his foundational biographical and bibliographical lexicon, and for ברכי יוסף, a major commentary on the Shulchan Aruch drawing on rare manuscripts and diverse local customs. After marrying his second wife in Pisa in 1778, he settled in Livorno, whose presses enabled him to publish works spanning responsa, halakhah, biblical commentary, Talmudic aggadah, prayer, Kabbalah and bibliography. He died in Livorno in 1806. His remains were transferred to Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem in 1960, a posthumous event deliberately excluded from the movement timeline.