1 Adar 5503
Harav Raphael Emmanuel Chai Riki was born in Italy in 5447. When he was six years old, his father, Reb Avraham, passed away, and his mother moved to live with her brother, Harav Yedidya Rabino, who was like a father figure to the child.
When he was nineteen, his uncle passed away, and he began to travel among Italy’s cities and served as a melamed. He built for his students a model of the Mishkan and the keilim, and as a result, he wrote his sefer Ma’aseh Choshev, which is about the meleches haMishkan.
When he was about thirty, he decided to dedicate himself to the study of Kabbalah, and he traveled to Tzefas, where he learned Chochmas Hasod from the writings of the Ari Hakadosh and his disciples. In Tzefas, he authored his well-known commentary Hon Ashir, on the Mishnah.
About two years later, following a plague in which his daughter perished, he had to leave Tzefas, and he traveled for Livorno, Italy, where he authored his famous compilation Mishnas Chassidim, which was printed three times in his lifetime. The author wrote in the introduction that he summarized all of Toras Hasod in this work, as he had learned it from the Arizal, in a clear way, in the style that the Rambam compiled Mishnah Torah.
The Mishnas Chassidim dedicated his life to Torah and avodas Hashem, and adopted many habits of kedushah and taharah. The Chida said of him (Shem Hagedolim, Ma’areches Gedolim, 70 18): "And I heard that there were twenty-two years during which he fasted every weekday, and conducted himself with chassidus and holiness."
Toward the end of his life, he resolved to return to Eretz Yisrael. He settled in Yerushalayim and established Yeshivas Chaveirim Makshivim. After a short time, he traveled to Italy to print his seforim and to raise money to support the yeshivah. On 1 Adar 5503, while in Italy, a tragedy occurred, when marauders accosted him and murdered him. A week later, he was brought to burial in the city of Cento, Italy.
