Mas'ud Hai Rakkach

18th-century Sephardi chacham and spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Tripoli, Libya. He is the author of Ma'aseh Rokeach, a commentary on Rambam's Mishneh Torah. He studied under the great Turkish rabbis of Izmir, R. Chaim Abulafia and R. Yitzchak HaKohen Rappaport, after which he emigrated to Jerusalem together with the latter. He was subsequently sent as an emissary to North Africa in order to raise funds for the Jerusalem community. The Libyan Jewish community at that time was at a spiritual low point, and they requested that he remain there and become their leader. He accepted and was appointed chief rabbi of Tripoli, a position he held for 20 years until his death in 1768. In addition to his work on Rambam, he wrote novellae on the Talmud and Five Megillot, as well as derashot (sermons), but these have never been published.