Rabbi Hezekiah da Silva, The Pri Chadash

Hezekiah da Silva (also Hezekiah Silva) (1659–1698) (חזקיה בן דוד די סילוא) was a Jewish author born at Livorno, Italy, son-in-law of the dayan Mordecai Refael Malachi. About 1679 he left his native city for Jerusalem, Palestine, where he attended the yeshibah of Moses Galante, and ten years later he was sent to Europe to collect funds for Jerusalem.

In 1691 he was in Amsterdam and began the printing of his work Peri Hadash (פרי חדש), a commentary on the Yoreh De'ah. He remained in that city for a year.

Five years later he was again at Jerusalem, his movements in the interim being unknown. He took a decided interest in the controversy of Moses Hagiz against Judah Vega, but his death in Jerusalem in 1698 cut short his activity in behalf of the former.

The freedom with which Silva discussed halakic problems brought the ban of the rabbis of Cairo upon his Peri Ḥadash, but it was afterward removed by Abraham Levi, although the two men, spiritually akin, were personally unacquainted.

This work of Silva's was supplemented by a second and a third part, both edited by his son David, and bearing the approbation of the chief authorities of the time (Amsterdam, 1706–1730). Silva was likewise the author of the Mayim Ḥayyim, containing a collection of notes on Talmudic treatises, together with responsa and a portion of the Yad of Maimonides.

Silva expressly states that he was a teacher at Jerusalem, not a rabbi, but despite this statement Luncz claims that he was chief rabbi of Jerusalem and that he died in 1740.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

• Azulai, Chaim Joseph, Shem ha-Gedolim
• Grätz, Heinrich, Geschichte der Juden, x. 320
• Luncz, Abraham Moses, Yerushalayim,, i.120
• Fürst, Julius, Bibliotheca Judaica, iii. 323-324
• Steinschneider, Moritz, Catalogus Librorum Hebræorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. 845

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Executive Committee of the Editorial Board and Lazarus Grünhut (1901–1906). "Silva, Hezekiah". Jewish Encyclopedia.

From the Jewish Encyclopedia or 1909, in the public domain, article about Rabbi Ezra Malki:

Hazekiah de Silva

Rabbi Malki was the brother-in-law of Hezekiah de Silva, the author of "Peri Ḥadash."