Rav Chaim David HaLevi הרב חיים דוד הלוי
Sephardi chief rabbi of Tel Aviv; author of the Mekor Chaim and the Aseh Lecha Rav
He was born in Jerusalem in 1924 and studied at the Porat Yosef yeshiva under Rav Ezra Attiya, together with Rav Ovadia Yosef. He served as rabbi of Rishon LeZion, and from 1973 as Sephardi chief rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, until his death.
His books were written for a country the earlier poskim never had. The Mekor Chaim is a code of law in five volumes, in plain language, for home and school; the short Mekor Chaim entered the curriculum of the state religious schools. The Aseh Lecha Rav, "Make Yourself a Teacher", is nine volumes of answers to the questions soldiers, physicians, judges and teachers asked: the army and the Sabbath, the state and the commandments, the physician and the patient. He held that halakhah can answer the new age if it is asked honestly. In 1997 he received the Israel Prize.
He died in 1998 in Tel Aviv.
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The Aseh Lecha Rav—responsa — the nine volumes of answers to the new state
- The Mekor Chaim — the code of law for home and school
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — Jerusalem 1924, Porat Yosef, Tel Aviv from 1973, the prize in 1997, 1998
Basis: documents and evidence.