Meyu?as, Moses Joseph Mordecai ben Raphael Meyu?as
MEYU?AS, MOSES JOSEPH MORDECAI BEN RAPHAEL MEYU?AS
MEYU?AS, MOSES JOSEPH MORDECAI BEN RAPHAEL MEYU?AS (1738–1805), chief rabbi of *Jerusalem. Moses studied in the bet midrash Bet Ya'akov. When only 15 years of age he answered questions on halakhah. After 1778 he was one of the members of the bet midrash Keneset Israel founded by ?ayyim ibn *Attar. After the death of his father-in-law Yom Tov *Algazi, Moses succeeded him as Sephardi chief rabbi (rishon le-Zion) in 1802. He was on friendly terms with ?.J.D. *Azulai. The titles of all his works include the word mayim from the initials of his name (he even signed his responsa "Mayim Meyu?as"). They are Sha'ar ha-Mayim (Salonika, 1768), novellae on the laws of terefot in Yoreh De'ah, on tractate ?ullin and responsa; Berekhot Mayim (ibid., 1789), novellae to the Shul?an Arukh; Mayim Sha'al (ibid., 1799), responsa, including the work Mayim Rishonim, novellae written in his youth, to the Mishneh Torah of *Maimonides. Many of his novellae and responsa, among them Penei ha-Mayim and Ein ha-Mayim, remain unpublished.
bibliography:
Frumkin-Rivlin, 3 (1929), 183–6; M.D. Gaon, Yehudei ha-Mizra? be-Ere? Yisrael, 2 (1938), 401f.; M. Benayahu, Rabbi ?ayyim Yosef David Azulai (Heb., 1959), 350f.
[Abraham David]
