The Sdei Chemed (Rabbi Chaim Hezekiah Medini [1834-1904]) was of the greatest rabbinical scholars of his day. He served as rabbi for 33 years in Kara-Su-Bazar, Crimea – not exactly the center of Jewry – but his name and works spread to all corners of the globe.
When he arrived in Jerusalem later in his life, he wrote that he responded to over 1,700 questions mailed to him in just one year while in Crimea! Since his handwriting was in Hazi Kulmus – the Sephardic Hebrew script – he would have his students rewrite letters in Ashkenazi Hebrew script so readers in Ashkenazi communities could read him as well.
His famous work by which he’s called today – Sdei Chemed – is a comprehensive rabbinic encyclopedia that contains correspondence with hundreds of the leading rabbis of his day. His responses required an extensive number of books, and his library was legendary even in his day.
This week, I acquired a Haggadah printed in 1897 that features several of his ownership stamps (as well as the stamp of the Jewish Hospital in the Old City of Jerusalem, Misgav Ladach). The story of the whereabouts of the Sdei Chemed’s after his death is a rather unusual one. The Sdei Chemed bequeathed his entire immense library to the hospital Misgav Ladach and suggested it sell his books and use the money to support the hospital’s work. Eventually, a sponsor from Oran, Algeria purchased the books from the hospital and created a yeshiva within the hospital that used his library.
During Israel’s War of Independence, with the Old City falling into Jordanian hands, the entire library along with the hospital’s contents is said to have been burned to the ground, and thus surviving books with the Sdei Chemed’s stamp are rare.
