Born in
Salé,
Morocco in 1696, Chaim was the son of Rabbi Moshe Ben-Attar and the grandson of Rabbi
Chaim Ben Attar (the elder), whom he learnt with in his early years. When he was nine years old, his family fled to
Meknes, Morocco, escaping the local jew-hating
vizier. He soon married a relative of his, named Fatzunyah, whose father supported him, letting him study
Torah without the burden of supporting a household; he did not end up having any children with her, so he later would marry a second wife named Esther Bibas, with whom he had 5 daughters and a son. He studied with them every Friday night the Torah portion of the week with explanations that was later written down and developed into his famed commentary 'Or ha-Hayyim al ha-Torah.' When his father-in-law died in 1724, his financial situation worsened, although the burden of support shifted to his father. At this time, he also ran a yeshiva in Salé. When a famine hit Morocco, he decided to leave his native country and settle in the
Land of Israel, then part of the
Ottoman Syria. En route, he was detained in
Livorno by the rich members of the Jewish community who established a
yeshiva for him. This was in 1739. Chaim was received with great honor wherever he traveled because of his extensive knowledge and keen intellect. Before permanently settling in the Land of Israel, he went to
Algiers where he recruited students for a yeshiva he was planning on opening in the Land of Israel. He soon arrived at the
Acre port in the Land of Israel with his two wives and thirty students. However he could not immediately proceed to
Jerusalem, due to an epidemic. In the middle of 1742 he arrived in Jerusalem, where he founded
Yeshivat Knesset Yisrael. One of his disciples there was
Chaim Yosef David Azulai, who wrote of his master's greatness: "Attar's heart pulsated with Talmud; he uprooted mountains like a resistless torrent; his holiness was that of an angel of the Lord,... having severed all connection with the affairs of this world." On July 7, 1743, less than a year after his arrival in Jerusalem, Chaim died; it was on a
Shabbat. It is said that that week in Europe, the
Baal Shem Tov was sitting at
Seudah shlishit, and before anyone in the area could have found out about Chaim's death, he exclaimed, "The light from the West has been extinguished!" He is buried in the
Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel. ==Works==