Nathan Adadi

Nathan Adadi was born in Palestine.[1] Little is known about his early life. He served as a shadar and was dispatched to the Jewish community in Livorno, Italy, to collect funds for the Jews of Palestine.[1] Afterwards he traveled to Tripoli, where he became a prominent student of Mas'ud Hai Rakkah,[1] one of the leading rabbis of Libyan Jewry in the 18th century.[2] Rakkaḥ chose Adadi as a son-in-law,[3] and Adadi and his wife had one son, Mas'ud Hai Adadi.

Together with Hakhamim Shalom Plus and Moshe Lachmish, Adadi led the Tripoli Jewish community after Rakkaḥ's death in 1768.[3] Among Adadi's students was Rabbi Yehuda Lavie, a leading rabbi and kabbalist in Tripoli in the 19th century.[4] In 1802 Adadi was appointed to the Tripoli beit din (rabbinical court), but served only for a few days. According to his grandson, Abraham Hayyim Adadi, he "resigned voluntarily because he was a zealot, favoring no man, however rich or prominent".[1]

Adadi's son and daughter-in-law died at a young age, leaving one young son, Abraham Hayyim Adadi (1801-1874). Adadi took the boy into his care and was his primary Torah teacher.[5]

In 1818, Adadi decided to return to Palestine, and his 18-year-old grandson accompanied him. Later that same year, Adadi died in Safed.[5]

Adadi authored numerous works on the Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah, and Mishnah,[6] including the sefarim Me'orei Natan and Chok Natan,[7] but his writings were not published and were subsequently lost.[6]

Adadi began preparing for publication the second volume of his father-in-law's major work, Ma'aseh Rokeaḥ, a commentary on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, from handwritten manuscripts, but did not complete the task. His grandson, Abraham Hayyim Adadi, eventually completed the volume and published it in Livorno in 1862.[3]

• Yaari, Avraham (1951). שלוחי ארץ ישראל [Emissaries of the Land of Israel]. Jerusalem. p. 675.
• יהדות לוב [Jews of Libya] (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. 1960. p. 68.