ר׳ יאיר חיים בכרך

ר׳ יאיר חיים בכרך (1638–1702), known as the חוות יאיר, was a major Ashkenazic halakhist, communal rabbi and polymath. Born in Lipník in Moravia into a distinguished rabbinic family, he moved as a child to Worms when his father ר׳ משה שמשון בכרך became its rabbi. He studied Torah alongside mathematics, astronomy and music, received rabbinic ordination, and served at Mainz and from 1666 at Koblenz. Returning to Worms in 1669, he taught and wrote but was passed over for the chief rabbinate after his father’s death. The French destruction of Worms in 1689 forced him and his family into a decade of displacement through Metz, Heidelberg and Frankfurt. When the community was reconstituted in 1699, he was finally appointed rabbi of Worms. That year he published חוות יאיר, 238 responsa named both for the biblical Havvot-Yair and in memory of his learned grandmother Chava. His rulings address ritual, civil law, communal governance, custom and early-modern technology. He also wrote מקור חיים on Orach Chaim, but withheld it after seeing the Taz and Magen Avraham; it appeared only in a modern edition. He died in Worms on 1 January 1702 and was buried in its Holy Sands cemetery.