Joseph Karo
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Rabbi Joseph Karo | |
---|---|
Title | הַמְחַבֵּר HaMechaber מָרַן Maran |
Personal | |
Born | Joseph ben Ephraim Karo 1488 |
Died | March 24, 1575 |
Religion | Judaism |
Signature | |
Buried | Safed, Israel |
Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro (
Biography
Joseph Karo was born in
Between 1520 and 1522 Karo settled at
Rabbinic career
For a short while he lived in Nikopol, but decided to make his way to the
At Safed he met
A Yemenite Jewish traveler, Zechariah (Yaḥya) al-Dhahiri, visited Rabbi Karo's yeshiva in Safed, in circa 1567 CE[7] and wrote of his impressions:[8]
I journeyed from Syria, the province, through Upper Galilee, unto the city of Safed, the land of Canaan. … I then came into the city, and lo! Within her dwelt the Divine Presence, for within her there is a large community, frowardness being removed far from them, about fourteen thousand in number! In eighteen seats of learning they had come to study the Talmud. There, I saw the light of the Law, and the Jews had light. They surpassed all other communities. … Then it was that I knew my estimable worth, based on all my strength and ability, and lo! I had been deficient in several matters. Now, 'that which is lacking cannot be numbered'.[9] I made myself inconspicuous in her midst, while my thoughts were languorous. Within the synagogues and midrashic study halls I had come to hear the expositors who expound upon a certain matter in several ways, seeing that they know every secret thing, from the walls of the ceiling, all the way down to its foundation – but, especially, the great luminary, even the wise man, Rabbi Joseph Karo, from whose seat of learning the wise men of Safed do not quit themselves, for in his heart the Talmud is stored, after he had sat down in learning for seven years, within a confined chamber. Now, aside from several branches of wisdom, within his heart are sealed, both, revelations and mysteries. I went one Sabbath to his seat of learning, to see his honourable and glorious magnanimity. I sat down by the entrance, alongside the doorpost of the gate, while my cogitations from foolishness were sorely gripped by fear. Now, that wise man the elder sat upon a chair, and with his mouth he did amplify the subject matter. By an utterance he would draw man away from his burthen caused by the vicissitudes of time, in drawing him nigh unto the faithful God. He would then clothe him, as it were, in sumptuous apparel fit for those who are free, by his recital of the verse: 'The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul'.
Mishna. So they went their way, the pupils who were there gathered and the wise man (i.e., Rabbi Joseph Karo).[11]
When Jacob Berab died, Karo was regarded as his successor, and together with Rabbi Moshe of Trani he headed the Rabbinical Court of Safed. In fact, by this time, the Rabbinical Court of Safed had become the central rabbinical court in all of Old Yishuv (southern Ottoman Syria), and indeed of the diaspora as well. Thus there was not a single matter of national or global importance that did not come to the attention and ruling of the Safed Beth Din. Its rulings were accepted as final and conclusive, and Karo's halachic decisions and clarifications were sought by sages from every corner of the diaspora. Rabbi Joseph Karo was also visited in Safed by the great Egyptian scholars of his day, Rabbi David ibn Abi Zimra and Rabbi Yaakov Castro. He came to be regarded as the leader of the entire generation.
In a dramatic testimonial, Rabbi
The Maggid promised him that he would have the merit of settling in the Land of Israel, and this promise was fulfilled. Another promise, that he would merit to die a martyr's death sanctifying God's Name like Rabbi Shlomo Molcho had merited, did not transpire for an unspecified reason.
His reputation during the last thirty years of his life was greater than that of almost any other rabbi since Maimonides. The Italian Azariah dei Rossi, though his views differed widely from Karo's, collected money among the rich Italian Jews for the purpose of having a work of Karo's printed; and Moses Isserles compelled the recognition of one of Karo's decisions at Kraków, although he had questions on the ruling.
When some members of the community of
Published works
Karo's literary works are considered among the masterpieces of rabbinic literature. He published during his lifetime:
- Beit Yosef (בית יוסף), a commentary on Arba'ah Turim, the current work of Jewish law in his days. In this commentary Karo shows an astounding mastery over the Talmud and the legalistic literature of the Middle Ages. He felt called upon to systematize the laws and customs of Judaism in face of the disintegration caused by the Spanish expulsion.
- Shulchan Aruch (שולחן ערוך), a condensation of his decisions in Beth Yosef. Finished in 1555, this code was published in four parts in 1565.[12]
- Kessef Mishneh (כסף משנה) (written in Nikopol, published Venice, 1574–75), a commentary of Mishneh Torah by Maimonides. In the introduction, Karo writes that his goal was to quote the source of each law in the Mishneh Torah, and to defend the work from the criticisms of the Ravad, Rabbi Abraham ben David.[13][14]
After his death there appeared:
- Bedek ha-Bayit (בדק הבית) (Salonica, 1605), supplements and corrections to Beth Yosef;
- Kelalei ha-Talmud (כללי התלמוד) (Salonica, 1598), on the methodology of the Talmud;
- Avkath Rochel (אבקת רוכל) (Salonica, 1791), Responsa
- Maggid Meisharim (מגיד מישרים) (Lublin, 1646), and supplements (Venice, 1646)
- Derashot (דרשות) (Salonica, 1799), speeches, in the collection 'Oz Tzaddikim'.
Maggid Meisharim
The Maggid Meisharim (1646, Preacher of Righteousness) is a mystical diary in which Karo during a period of fifty years recorded the nocturnal visits of an angelic being, his heavenly mentor, the personified
Burial place
He is buried in Old Cemetery of Tzfat / Safed.
Other notable rabbis also buried in Old Cemetery of Tzfat / Safed:
- Ari HaKadosh
- Alshich Hakadosh
- Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz
- Moses ben Jacob Cordovero
References
- ^ Rabbi Joseph Karo Archived 2009-01-14 at the Wayback Machine, OU
- ^ "Joseph ben Ephraim Karo | Jewish scholar | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
- ^ Britannica.com
- ISBN 9782915540109.
- ^ The Shulchan Aruch, My Jewish Learning
- )
- ^ The date of al-Dhahari's visit to the Land of Israel is alluded to in Chapter Twenty-Five of al-Dhahiri's book, Sefer Ha-Musar. There, he writes: "Now, in Tiberius there was the wise man, [Rabbi Eliezer] Ben Yochai, in whose generation he was of singular character; in the year, et ha-keves he-eḥad = את הכב"ש ה'אחד, I moved on from there into the village of Kanah, the city of Jonah, the son of Amitai, and from there to Shechem and to Jerusalem, and Hebron the place of my fathers." The year is denoted in Hebrew characters, in the form of a biblical verse (i.e., "the one lamb" – Exo. 29:39), each Hebrew character having a numerical value. The year given is highlighted as הכב"ש (ה = 5; כ = 20; ב = 2; ש = 300), which, being rearranged, is actually השכ"ב (327), believed to have been the abbreviated form of the year, without the millennium. By adding the numerical value of the first letter of the next word, ה in the word האחד, it brings us to the millennium 5; that year being 5,327 anno mundi, or what was then 1567 CE. Thus is it explained in Yehuda Ratzaby's 1965 edition of Sefer HaMusar, p. 287, who relied upon the date of 1567, based upon Yaari's calculations. Mordechai Yitzhari, however, in his 2008 edition of Sefer Ha-Musar, p. 162, for reasons unexplained, appends the date of 1565. It should be pointed out here that if we were to strictly apply the numerical values in the word השכ"ב alone, with the view that it already includes the millennium of 5, the year of al-Dhahiri's visit to the Land of Israel would have been in 1562 CE.
- ^ Zachariā Al-Ḏāhrī, Sefer Hammusar (ed. Yehuda Ratzaby), Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem 1965 (Hebrew), pp. 116–117
- ^ Ecclesiastes 1:15
- ^ (Psalms 19:7
- ^ Al-Dhahiri, Yaḥya (Zechariah). "Sefer Ha-Musar". Benei Baraq 2008 (Hebrew), pp. 58, 62.
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(help) - ^ public domain: Abrahams, Israel (1911). "Qaro, Joseph ben Ephraim". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 706.
...his second work, the Shulḥan 'Arukh ("Table Prepared"). Finished in 1555, this code was published in four parts in 1565
. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the - ^ "Kessef Mishneh on Mishneh Torah". Sefaria. January 14, 2019.
- ^ "Sefer Kessef Mishneh" (in Hebrew). Wikisource. January 14, 2019.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Qaro, Joseph ben Ephraim". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the