Meyuḥas, Moses Joseph Mordecai ben Raphael Meyuḥas
MEYUḤAS, MOSES JOSEPH MORDECAI BEN RAPHAEL MEYUḤAS
MEYUḤAS, MOSES JOSEPH MORDECAI BEN RAPHAEL MEYUḤAS (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 Ḥayyim 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 Ḥ.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 Meyuḥas"). They are Sha'ar ha-Mayim (Salonika, 1768), novellae on the laws of terefot in Yoreh De'ah, on tractate Ḥullin and responsa; Berekhot Mayim (ibid., 1789), novellae to the Shulḥan 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 Many of his novellae and responsa, among them Penei ha-Mayim and Ein ha-Mayim, remain unpublished.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-Mizraḥ be-Ereẓ Yisrael, 2 (1938), 401f.; M. Benayahu, Rabbi Ḥayyim Yosef David Azulai (Heb., 1959), 350f.
[Abraham David]