Eight Pages Handwritten by the Ben Ish Chai – 1898

Four leaves (eight pages) handwritten by the 'Ben Ish Chai'. Th efirst part of a sermon he had delivered in a synagogue. Iyar, 1898.

Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Bagdad author of 'Ben Ish Chai' (1833-1909) was one of the greatest Kabbalists and Poskim of recent generations. He was the disciple of Rabbi Ovadya Somech. After his father's death in 1859, when he was 26 years old, the Ben Ish Chai replaced him as the leading rabbinical scholar of Bagdad.

His vast knowledge of Torah and Kabbala became known all around the world, so much so, that Rabbi Yechezkel Moshe Ha'Levi, the head of the Dayanim of Bagdad said of him that "If Rabbi Yosef Chaim told me that right is left and left is right, he would not doubt him!". Rabbi Yosef Chaim used to send his books to be printed in Jerusalem in order to assist in the livelihood of its residents and express his opinion of the holiness and virtue of the Land of Israel.

The Ben Ish Chai used to deliver sermons for about fifty years yet he never repeated what he had already said. In each sermon, he introduced new ways to understand the Torah.

He wrote more than a hundred compositions, of which only 53 were published. Among his composition: Rav Pe'alim, Torah Lishmah, Ben Ish Chai, Ben Ish Chayil, Ben Yehoyada and many more.

Condition: Very Good. In an impressive leather bounding.