GAGIN, SHALOM MOSES BEN ḤAYYIM ABRAHAM

GAGIN, SHALOM MOSES BEN ḤAYYIM ABRAHAM (d. 1883), talmudist and emissary of Ereẓ Israel. He was the son of Ḥayyim Abraham *Gagin, from whom he inherited a large library, of which *Frumkin made use in his Toledot Ḥakhmei Yerushalayim. Shalom was a member of the kabbalist circle of scholars at the yeshivah "Bet El" in Jerusalem. From 1862–65, as an emissary of Jerusalem, he visited Tripoli and Algeria, as well as Tunis, where he influenced Caid Nissim Shamama to bequeath a large sum of money to Ereẓ Israel. In 1870, on a second mission, Shalom spent some time in Rome. He died in Jerusalem.

His works, most of whose titles include the word Samaḥ (from the initials of his name), include (1) Yismaḥ Lev, responsa, pt. 1 (1878), pt. 2 (1888); (2) Yismaḥ Moshe (1878), rulings relevant to the testament of Nissim Shamama; (3) Samaḥ Libbi (1884), homilies; (4) Saviv ha-Ohel pt. 1 (1886), pt. 2 (1904), on the tent of meeting, consisting of additions to Yeri'otha-Ohel, the commentary of Ḥayyim Abraham Gagin (Agan) on the Ohel Mo'ed of Samuel b. Meshullam *Gerondi; (5)Samaḥ Nefesh (1903), on the laws of blessings. Shalom also arranged the publication of Sha'ar ha-Pesukim (1863) of Ḥayyim Vital, and Ḥayyim mi-Yrushalayim (1888), a collection of his father's sermons. Some of his poems were published in Devar Adonai mi-Yrushalayim (1873) of Aaron b. Isaac Pereira.

bibliography:

M.D. Gaon, Yehudei ha-Mizraḥ be-Ereẓ Yisrael, 2 (1938), 188; Yaari, Sheluḥei, 738f.; Frumkin-Rivlin, 1 (1929), 60, 66 (introduction); 3 (1929), 121, 277, 312.

[Simon Marcus]