Rav Yosef Karo

Early years

Rav Yosef Karo zt"l, known as the Beis Yosef, the Mechaber (the author) and Maran (our master), was born in Toledo, Spain, in 1488, the son of Rav Efraim Karo. In 1492, when he was four years old, he fled Spain with his family and the rest of Spanish Jewry, after the expulsion decreed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The family settled first in Portugal. When the Jews were expelled from Portugal in 1497, the Ottomans invited them to settle in their empire, and Rav Yosef went with his parents to Nikopolis, then under Ottoman rule. He spent the rest of his life in that region.

In Nikopolis he received his first instruction from his father, an eminent talmid chacham, and from his uncle, Rav Yitzchok Karo, also an important scholar of his time. He married a daughter of Rav Yitzchok Saba and a daughter of Rav Chaim Albalag, both well-known talmidei chachamim.

Between 1520 and 1522 he settled in Edirne. He then set out for Eretz Yisroel, wanting to immerse himself in its holiness and to complete his written works. On the way he spent several years in Salonica, in 1533 and after, and in Constantinople, and in Salonica he met the great kabbalist Rav Yosef Taitazak. He traveled on through Egypt, and it is believed that he studied there under Rav Yaakov Berav. He reached Tzfas about 1535.

Torah and leadership

In Tzfas Rav Yosef was appointed to the beis din of Rav Yaakov Berav, whom he regarded as his teacher. Rav Yaakov was working to restore semichah, the authoritative rabbinic ordination and jurisdiction that had lapsed for more than eleven centuries, and Rav Yosef became an enthusiastic supporter. He was one of four rabbanim who received semichah from Rav Yaakov.

Other rabbanim opposed the effort, and after Rav Yaakov's passing in 1546 the use of semichah faded. Rav Yosef tried to carry on the plan by ordaining his talmid, Rav Moshe Alshich, but in the end he gave up, convinced that the opposition could not be overcome.

After Rav Yaakov's passing, Rav Yosef became the leader of the Tzfas beis din, which he headed together with Rav Moshe of Trani. It was probably the beis din held in the highest regard throughout the world in its time. Rabbanim from every corner sought its opinion on difficult questions, and no matter of national or global importance failed to come before it. Its rulings were accepted as final. Rav David ibn Avi Zimra and Rav Yaakov Castro, the great scholars of Egypt, came to Tzfas to visit him, and he came to be regarded as the leader of his entire generation. He also founded a yeshiva in Tzfas in which he taught more than two hundred talmidim.

Around 1567 a visitor from Yemen, Zechariah al-Dhahiri, came to Tzfas and set down his impressions. He wrote of a community of about fourteen thousand, with eighteen houses of study, in which he felt that the Divine Presence dwelled. He singled out Rav Yosef Karo as the great luminary of the city, whose heart held the whole Gemara after seven years of learning in a closed room. One Shabbos the visitor sat at the door of Rav Yosef's yeshiva and watched him sit among some two hundred distinguished talmidim, explaining each subject both in its simple meaning and in its hidden meaning, and then end by sending each talmid to learn a Mishnah.

The reach of his authority was great. Azariah de Rossi, though his views differed widely from Rav Yosef's, collected money among wealthy Italian Jews to have one of Rav Yosef's works printed. Rav Moshe Isserles saw to it that one of Rav Yosef's rulings was recognized in Krakow, although he had questions about it. When some members of the community of Carpentras, in France, felt they had been treated unjustly in a matter of taxes, they appealed to Rav Yosef, and his letter was enough to restore their rights. In the East his authority was greater still. His name heads the decree of excommunication against Daud, the agent of Yosef Nasi, and it was Rav Yosef who condemned de Rossi's Meor Einayim to be burned.

The Maggid

It is told that in Salonica Rav Yosef became one of the rare individuals to merit a maggid, a private angelic teacher. Rav Shlomo Alkabetz gave testimony of this. The maggid urged Rav Yosef to sanctify and purify himself and revealed to him events that would take place in the future. Rav Chaim Vital explains in Shaarei Kedushah that a visit from a maggid is a form of ruach hakodesh (Divine inspiration). In many places in Maggid Meisharim the maggid says, "I am the Mishnah that speaks in your mouth," showing that the Oral Torah itself spoke within him. These two explanations do not contradict each other, for it was in the merit of the Mishnah that he reviewed constantly that he was worthy of an angelic teacher.

It is told that over some fifty years Rav Yosef recorded the nighttime visits of this heavenly mentor, the Mishnah in person, in a diary that became Maggid Meisharim. The maggid spurred him to acts of righteousness and even asceticism, urged him to study Kabbalah and rebuked him for moral lapses. It told him to be extremely humble, to pray with the greatest devotion, and to be gentle and patient always. He was sometimes sharply rebuked for taking more than one glass of wine or for eating meat, and whenever he did not follow its strict instructions he suddenly heard its warning voice. The maggid also advised him in family matters, told him of the reputation he enjoyed in heaven, and praised or criticized his rulings. New ideas came to him from the maggid only in Kabbalah, in the form of kabbalistic interpretations of the Chumash.

The maggid promised that he would merit to settle in Eretz Yisroel, and that promise was fulfilled. It also promised that he would die al kiddush Hashem, as Rav Shlomo Molcho had, and that did not come to pass, for a reason that is not stated.

Teachings and seforim

While still in Turkey, and over the following twenty years, Rav Yosef wrote Beis Yosef, a commentary on the Tur of Rav Yaakov ben Asher. For each ruling in the Tur it traces the source in the Gemara, cites every other relevant opinion and concludes with a decision. Rav Yosef felt called to bring order to the laws and customs of the Jewish people after the disruption caused by the Spanish expulsion. He finished the work in 1542, and after some revisions it was published in 1551. It was received so well that it had to be reprinted.

From the Beis Yosef he drew the Shulchan Aruch, a condensation of his rulings. He finished it in 1555, and it was published in four parts in 1565. It was not accepted without protest and criticism, but after a century, with some revisions and additions, it became the nearly unquestioned authority of the Jewish world.

Rav Yosef also wrote Kesef Mishneh, a commentary on the Rambam's Mishneh Torah. First published in Venice in 1574, it has appeared in almost every edition of the Rambam. He left a commentary on the Mishnah and supercommentaries on the commentaries of Rashi and Ramban on the Torah, which have not been preserved.

Later years and passing

In the last thirty years of his life Rav Yosef's reputation was greater than that of almost any rav since the Rambam. He was humble, devout, gentle and ascetic, and a true kabbalist.

He passed away in Tzfas on 13 Nissan 5335 (24 March 1575). Several orations and some elegies from the time of his passing have been preserved.

Legacy

The Shulchan Aruch is still authoritative for all Jews, each according to the practice of his own community, and for this reason Rav Yosef is called the Mechaber and Maran.

After his passing came Bedek HaBayis, Klalei HaTalmud, Avkas Rochel, Maggid Meisharim and Derashos. Rav Chaim Yosef David Azulai notes that only about one fiftieth of the manuscript of the Maggid was ever published. His Beis Yosef and his Shulchan Aruch remain the foundation of halachic study.