Yosef Hayyim

Yosef Hayim (1 September 1835 – 30 August 1909) (Iraqi Hebrew: Yoseph Ḥayyim; Hebrew: יוסף חיים מבגדאד; or Yosef Chaim) was a leading Baghdadi hakham (Sephardi rabbi), authority on halakha (Jewish law), and Master Kabbalist.

He is best known as author of the work on halakha Ben Ish Ḥai (בן איש חי‎) ("Son of Man (who) Lives"), a collection of the laws of everyday life interspersed with mystical insights and customs, addressed to the masses and arranged by the weekly Torah portion.

The Sephardic Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem was founded on his advice by Joseph Shalom, of Calcutta, India—one of Hayim's patrons.

Hayim clashed with the reformist Bavarian Jewish scholar Jacob Obermeyer, who lived in Baghdad from 1869 to 1880, and Hayyim excommunicated him.

Hakham Yosef Hayim authored over thirty other works, and there are many published Iraqi rite siddurim (prayer books) based on his rulings, which are widely used by Sephardi Jews.