A Short Tribute

Hacham Faraj Haim Yehuda, son of Hacham Shlomo Yehezkel, was born in 1846 in Baghdad, Iraq.

It was in Baghdad that he wrote his first work, Masechet Ohel Mo'ed, on the Temple and its vessels; he also built a model of the Temple and its ritual objects. The manuscript was never printed and is unavailable today. He eventually immigrated to the Land of Israel and settled in Jerusalem. Hacham Faraj Haim Yehuda was one of the founders of the Shimon HaTzaddik quarter, a Jerusalem neighborhood established in 1875 by the 'Eidah Sepharadit Committee.

In 1882, Hacham Faraj Haim Yehuda left on a mission to India to raise funds for the Shimon HaTzaddik synagogue. In Mumbay he participated in the writing of Ya'arat Dvash, by Hacham Yehezkel Yaakov Rachamim. In 1885, following his return to Jerusalem, he and his brother, Hacham Binyamin Yehuda, jointly founded the 'Adat HaBavlim in Jerusalem. He left again for India in 1893. On his way back to Israel, he passed through his birthplace, Baghdad, where he passed away - on 17 Tishrei 5653 (1893). Hacham Faraj Haim Yehuda was buried in Baghdad. His book, VaTitpallel Hanna, contains prayers, ethics and laws, and was printed in Jerusalem in 1889.