A Short Tribute

Hacham Peretz Maimon was born on 21 Tishrei, 5677 (1917) in Gabes, Tunisia. His main Torah teacher was Hacham Haim Houri, who ordained him to the rabbinate and whose daughter, Nina, he was to marry. Hacham Peretz Maimon served as shochet and bodeq, as well as a Beit Din scribe, and also wrote ketubot. In 1932 he began a handwritten compilation of his piyyutim.

He immigrated to Israel in 1954, settling in the Gilat moshav, near the town of Ofaqim. He served as rabbi of the moshav and of the local Merhavim regional council for some fifty years. Following the death of Hacham Yaakov Cohen, he held the position of Ofaqim's rabbi as well, for a period of seven years.

Hacham Peretz Maimon fulfilled all religious roles, serving as teacher, adjudicator, shochet and mohel, cantor and ba'al koreh. As the moshav rabbi he often made halakhic rulings on issues pertaining to agriculture; he worked on having shmita year laws applied by farmers.

Hacham Peretz Maimon passed away on 11 Tishrei 5762 (2002) and was buried on the Gilat moshav.

Hacham Peretz Maimon's writings have been published in a three-volume book entitled Toldot Peretz. One volume deals in Halakhic questions, a second is a collection of sermons on the weekly Torah Readings, and the third contains innovative commentary on the Talmud.