Sermon for Shabbat Kallah, Autograph Manuscript of the Ben Ish Hai (Rabbi Joseph Hayyim al-Hakam of Baghdad), 5651 (=1891)

22 leaves (7 3/8 x 4 ½ in.; 185 x 115 mm), including two blanks; written in black ink on unruled paper in Eastern semi-cursive Hebrew script; ca. 25 lines per page, occasional strikethroughs and edits by author; modern foliation in pencil. Minor chipping; paper repairs, ff. 1-2 at gutter, affecting a few letters. Modern maroon calf. 

Shaul Regev, “The Homiletical and Ethical Literature of Rabbi Joseph Hayyim,” Yahadut Bavel 1 (1996): 35-42 (in Hebrew).

unpublished sermon of the renowned leader of Iraqi Jewry

Rabbi Joseph Hayyim al-Hakam of Baghdad (1835-1909) was one of the most prominent halakhic authorities and kabbalists of Iraqi Jewry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born into a rabbinic family, he was selected to succeeded his father as spiritual leader of the Jews of Baghdad in 1859, a post he held for half a century until his death. In addition to serving as the community’s primary posek (halakhic decisor), he delivered daily lectures and weekly sermons to its members, always attracting large crowds. While his weekly Sabbath afternoon homily was given in the so-called “small” synagogue, which seated a thousand worshipers, there were four Sabbaths in the year when he would lecture at the “large” synagogue, with a capacity of over ten thousand seats: the Sabbaths before Yom Kippur (“Shuvah”), Purim (“Zakhor”), Passover (“Ha-Gadol”), and Shavu‘ot (“Kallah”). Each of these sermons would typically feature a blend of Jewish law, rabbinic legend, parables, and ethical teachings.

The present lot comprises the sermon delivered by Rabbi Joseph Hayyim al-Hakam of Baghdad on Shabbat Kallah 5651 (29 Iyyar 5654 = June 6, 1891), and written in his own hand. The final leaf includes additions to the sermon, written by him the following year. While in recent years a number of collections of al-Hakam’s sermons have begun to appear in print (Ben Ish Hayil [1988], Siftei Hayyim [2009], Gedullat Hayyim [2012]), the present homily has yet to be published.

Al-Hakam was and continues to be respected throughout the Sephardic world, especially in the Jewish communities of Iraq, Iran, India, and the Land of Israel. His prestige is such that his descendants and followers particularly deem original handwritten material to be imbued with an ineluctable level of holiness that serves as both a source of metaphysical protection and blessing.