A Short Tribute

Hacham Yihya Moshe Abudi was born in 1844 (5604) in Baghdad, Iraq. He studied in the Midrash Beit Zalicha rabbinic beit midrash and married Masouda, daughter of Abraham Yehoshua Eliezer.

In 1875 Lord Yehezqel, the son of Yehoshua Gabai, invited Hacham Yihya Moshe Abudi to Bombay, India to tutor his sons and to be the ritual slaughterer and examiner [bodeq]. Following his stay in India, Hacham Yihya Moshe Abudi went on to Shanghai, and from there to Jerusalem, where he earned a living from commerce and, in his remaining time, studied Torah.

In 1907 he left for a Kollel fundraising mission to cities in India and returned to Jerusalem two years later.

Hacham Yihya Moshe Abudi passed away in Jerusalem on 2 Shevat, 5675 (1915).

He authored several works. Those that were published include Yigmor Ba'adi – on the Mishna, Magen Ba'adi – comments on the book Magen Avraham, and Doresh Ba'adi – on the Torah and Ethics of Our Fathers, Misharei Kitrin – on the Ba'al Tosphot's commentary on the Talmud, Hadar Zeqeinim – on the Mishna and the Guide to the Perplexed – a collection of aphorisms by our Sages of blessed memory. Additional articles he wrote were published in Torah journals, such as Hame'asef, Torah Me'Zion and Or Torah.