Acharonim1638–1702Worms; Mainz; Koblenz; Frankfurt
Rabbi Yair Chaim Bacharach (the Chavot Yair)
Halakha and responsa
- The Chavot Yair
- Mekor Chaim
- Chut HaShani
- The Maharal
- Worms
- Magen Avraham
- The Taz
- Following the majority
- Ashkenazi ruling
Halakha and responsa
Independent halakhic ruling committed to the truth: he disagrees with the Rambam and holds that forgetting and dispute are possible even in a halakha given to Moses at Sinai, and that the decision of the sages of the generation determines the halakha even against the original tradition. He opposes excessive pilpul sharply, and instead of studying the hidden Torah, whose importance he valued, he prefers “to stand on the principles of the faith and the laws of the commandments”.
Born in Leipnik in Moravia in 1638, he served as rabbi of Koblenz and Mainz and, at the end of his life, of Worms, and died in 1702. One of the great Acharonim in Ashkenaz, he is known for the book of responsa Chavot Yair, which was first published in 1699 and is considered one of the most important books of halakha in Ashkenaz. He wrote about forty books on halakha, among them Mekor Chaim on the Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim; his book Chut HaShani consists mainly of the responsa of his father and grandfather.
The writings of Yair Chaim Bacharach can be read on Sefaria, a free library of Jewish texts. A title opens the text itself.
Content from Sefaria (sefaria.org) and Wikimedia projects, non-profit projects.
The archive doesn’t yet record an unbroken road from Rabbi Yair Chaim Bacharach to the chain of transmission: the trail reaches back to Rabbi Menachem Tzioni and stops there.