DAVID BEN ḤAYYIM HA-KOHEN (known under the abbreviation RaDaK):

By: Louis Ginzberg, Isaac Broydé

Rabbi at Corfu, and later at Patros, Greece, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He was a pupil of Judah Minz, and a contemporary of Elijah Mizraḥi and Moses Alashkar, with whom he maintained a correspondence, though chiefly with the latter, with whom he subsequently had some disputes. David became prominent through his attacks upon Benjamin Ze'eb, who had permitted an "'agunah" to marry on the testimony of a Gentile.

The whole of David's works, with the exception of thirty-three responsa, perished in a fire at Adrianople. The responsa were arranged by David's son-in-law, David Vital, and were published under the title "She'elot u-Teshubot MaHaRDaK" (Constantinople, 1537; reprinted several times).

L. G.I. Br.