Kessef Mishneh

Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro (; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M.), was a prominent Sephardic Jewish rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the ''Beit Yosef'', and its popular analogue, the ''Shulhan Arukh''. Karo is regarded as the preeminent halakhic authority of his time, and is often referred to by the honorific titles HaMechaber () and Maran ().Joseph ben Ephraim Karo
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Biography

Joseph Karo was born in Toledo, Spain, in 1488. In 1492, aged four, he was expelled from Spain with his family as a result of the Alhambra Decree and subsequently settled in the Kingdom of Portugal. Following his father's death, Karo's uncle Isaac, an author of biblical commentary, adopted him. After the expulsion of the Jews from Portugal in 1497, the Ottomans invited the Jews to settle within their empire. Karo went with his parents, after a brief move to Morocco, to Nikopolis, then a city under Ottoman rule. In Nikopol, he received his first instruction from his father, who was himself an eminent Talmudist. He was married twice, firstly to Isaac Saba's daughter, and, then after her death, to the daughter of Hayyim Albalag, both of these men being well-known Talmudists.

Between 1520 and 1522 Karo settled at Adrianople. He later settled in the city of Safed, Ottoman Galilee, where he arrived about 1535, having ''en route'' spent several years at Salonica (1533) and Istanbul. By 1555, Joseph Karo was already a resident of the village Biriyya near Safed, during which year he completed writing the first order of the ''Shulhan Arukh'', Orach Chayim.

Rabbinic career

For a short while he lived in Nikopol, but decided to make his way to the Land of Israel so that he could immerse himself in its sanctity and complete his written works. Passing through Salonica, he met the great kabbalist Joseph Taitazak. He continued his journey to the Holy Land via Egypt and eventually settled in Safed.

At Safed, he met Jacob Berab and was soon appointed a member of his rabbinical court. Berab exerted great influence upon him, and Karo became an enthusiastic supporter of Berab's plans for the reinstitution of semikha "rabbinical ordination", which had been in abeyance for over 11 centuries. Karo was one of the first he ordained and after Berab's death, Karo tried to perpetuate the scheme by ordaining his pupil Moshe Alshich. He finally gave up his endeavors, convinced that he could not overcome the opposition to ordination. Karo also established a ''yeshiva'' where he taught Torah to over 200 students.

A Yemenite Jewish traveler, Zechariah Dhahiri, visited Rabbi Karo's ''yeshiva'' in Safed and noted,

When Jacob Berab died, Karo was regarded as his successor, and together with Moses ben Joseph di Trani, he headed the bet din of Safed. By this time, the beth din of Safed had become the central bet din in all of Old Yishuv (southern Ottoman Syria) and of the Jewish 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 bet din. Its rulings were accepted as final and conclusive, and sages from every corner of the diaspora sought Karo's halachic decisions and clarifications. Karo was also visited in Safed by the great Egyptian scholars of his day, David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra and Yaakov de Castro. He came to be regarded as the leader of the entire generation.

In a dramatic testimonial, Solomon Alkabetz testified that in Salonica, Karo had become one of the rare individuals who merited to be instructed by a maggid—a private preacher who revealed to him many kabbalistic teachings. The maggid exhorted Karo to sanctify and purify himself, and he revealed events that would take place in the future. In the "Gates of Holiness" (), Hayyim ben Joseph Vital explains that visitation by a maggid is a form of divine inspiration. The teachings of the maggid are recorded in his published work titled '' Maggid Mesharim'' "Teacher of Righteousness". Chaim Yosef David Azulai notes that only about one-fiftieth of the manuscript was published. However, in numerous places in the ''Maggid Meisharim'' it states, "I am the Mishna that speaks in your mouth," indicating that the Oral Torah itself (of which the Mishna is the fundamental part) spoke within him.

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 like Solomon Molcho had merited, did not transpire.

His reputation during the last thirty years of his life was greater than that of almost any other rabbi since Maimonides. The Italian Jew Azariah dei Rossi, though his views differed widely from Karo's, collected money among the wealthy Italian Jews to have a work of Karo's printed and Moses Isserles compelled the recognition of one of Karo's decisions at Kraków. However, he had questions on the ruling. When some members of the community of Carpentras in the Kingdom of France believed themselves to have been unjustly treated by the majority in a matter relating to taxes, they appealed to Karo, whose letter was sufficient to restore to them their rights In the east, Karo's authority was, if possible, even greater. His name heads the decree of herem (censure) directed against Daud, Joseph Nasi's agent, and it was Karo who commissioned Elisha Gallico to draw up a decree to be distributed among all Jews ordering that Azariah dei Rossi's "Light of the Eyes" (''Me'or 'Enayim'') be burned. Since Karo died before it was ready for him to sign, the decree was not promulgated, and the rabbis of Mantua contented themselves with forbidding the reading of the work by Jews under twenty-five years of age. Several funeral orations delivered on that occasion and some elegies from Karo's passing have been preserved.

Published works

Karo's literary works are among the masterpieces of rabbinic literature. He published during his lifetime:
* '' Bet Yosef'' (), a commentary on ''Arba'ah Turim'', the current work of halakha 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 the face of the disintegration caused by the expulsion of Jews from Spain.
* ''Shulchan Aruch'' (), a condensation of his decisions in ''Bet Yosef''. Finished in 1555, this code was published in four parts in 1565..
* ''Kessef Mishneh'' (, 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 Abraham ben David.

After his death, there appeared:
* ''Bedek ha-Bayit'' (, Salonica, 1605), supplements and corrections to the ''Bet Yosef'';
* ''Kelalei ha-Talmud'' (, Salonica, 1598), on the methodology of the Talmud;
* ''Avkath Rochel'' (, Salonica, 1791), Responsa
* ''Maggid Mesharim'' (, Lublin, 1646), and supplements (Venice, 1646)
* ''Derashot'' (, Salonica, 1799), speeches, in the collection ''Oz Tzaddikim''.

''Maggid Meisharim''

The ''Maggid Mesharim'' (1646, "Preacher of Righteousness") is a mystical diary in which Karo, over fifty years, recorded the nocturnal visits of an angelic being, his heavenly mentor, the personified ''Mishna''. His visitor spurred him to acts of righteousness and even asceticism, exhorted him to study Kabbala, and reproved him for moral laxities.

Burial place

He is buried in Old Cemetery of Safed.

Other notable rabbis also buried in Old Cemetery of Safed:
* Isaac Luria
* Moshe Alshich
* Solomon Alkabetz
* Moses ben Jacob Cordovero

References

*

External links

Joseph b. Ephraim Caro

Video Lecture on Yosef Karo
by Dr. Henry Abramson

Letter sent and signed by Joseph Karo in Safed, from the Cairo Genizah Collection at Cambridge University Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karo, Yosef
1488 births
1575 deaths
16th-century Sephardi Jews
16th-century rabbis from the Ottoman Empire
Immigrants to the Ottoman Empire
Spanish emigrants
Jews expelled from Spain in 1492
Kabbalists
People from Toledo, Spain
Rabbis in Ottoman Galilee
Rabbis in Safed
Sephardi rabbis from Ottoman Palestine
Exponents of Jewish law
Burials at the Old Jewish Cemetery, Safed
Angelic visionaries
Authors of books on Jewish law