Kaf HaChaim—Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer כף החיים — רבי יעקב חיים סופר
the Kaf HaChaim: the law together with what Kabbalah says about it
A Baghdadi by birth, in 5664 he came to Jerusalem to see it—and stayed for good. He studied at the Beit El synagogue, the centre of Jerusalem Kabbalah, and from 5669 at the Shoshanim leDavid yeshiva.
Kaf HaChaim. Ten volumes: eight on Orach Chaim and two on part of Yoreh De'ah. The work is comparable to the Mishnah Berurah in scope and in intent—but built differently: it quotes far more and brings the opinions of predecessors far more widely.
The chief difference is Kabbalah. Where the view of the Arizal and the kabbalists bears on the law, he brings it and reckons with it. In Ashkenazi codes that is rare; in Sephardi ones it is the custom, and the Kaf HaChaim carried that custom to its fullness.
For many Sephardi communities today it is the first code they turn to. He died on 9 Sivan 5699.
On the timeline
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Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Kaf HaChaim — his code: Orach Chaim and part of Yoreh De'ah
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, “Sofer, Jacob Ḥayyim” — Baghdad, the move to Jerusalem in 1904, Beit El, the years
Basis: documents and evidence.