ר׳ יעקב חיים סופר

ר׳ יעקב חיים סופר (c. 1870–27 May 1939), generally known as בעל כף החיים, was an Iraqi-born Sephardi halakhist and kabbalist whose encyclopedic commentary became a major guide to practical law and custom. Born in Baghdad to ר׳ יצחק ברוך סופר and Esther, he studied at the Beit Zilkha yeshivah under ר׳ עבדאללה סומך and absorbed the teaching and communal traditions of ר׳ יוסף חיים, the Ben Ish Chai. His formation joined rigorous halakhic learning, Iraqi minhag and Lurianic Kabbalah. In 1904 he travelled to Ottoman Palestine with Iraqi colleagues, visited sacred sites and chose to remain in Jerusalem. He first joined the kabbalistic circle of Beit El in the Old City and also studied among the Rehovot HaNahar kabbalists associated with ר׳ חיים שאול דוויק הכהן. By 1909 he was teaching at Shoshanim LeDavid, the Iraqi synagogue and yeshivah in the Beit Israel–Bukharan area, where he spent the rest of his scholarly career and served the Babylonian community. There he composed כף החיים, arranged according to Shulchan Aruch. Its eight author-published volumes on Orach Chayim appeared from 1910 to 1933, followed by the first Yoreh De'ah volume in 1936. The work gathers an unusually broad range of Rishonim, Acharonim, local customs and kabbalistic rulings, especially those associated with ר׳ יצחק לוריא, while normally identifying its sources. It consequently became particularly influential in Sephardi and Mizrahi halakhic practice. He also wrote קול יעקב on scribal law, יגל יעקב, ישמח ישראל and חיים עד העולם. ר׳ יעקב חיים died in Jerusalem on 9 Sivan 5699 and was buried on the Mount of Olives. A second Yoreh De'ah volume was issued posthumously from his manuscript and completed by ר׳ עובדיה יוסף; it must therefore not be represented as wholly finished by the author himself.