Yaakov Chaim Sofer

Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer was a Sephardi rabbi, halakhist, kabbalist, and author of the legal work Kaf HaChaim. Born in Baghdad in 1870, he studied with renowned Sephardi authorities such as the Ben Ish Chai, before moving to Jerusalem in 1904. There, he studied first in the famed Bet-El kabbalistic academy, founded in 1737, and then in the newer Shoshanim LeDavid yeshiva. Rabbi Sofer, whose last name means “scribe” and refers to the family’s traditional profession, also wrote Kol Yaakov, a halakhic treatise on the laws of writing holy texts, in addition to other works on Torah and aggadah. His works are an important source for Iraqi Jewish traditions.