Editing Joseph Karo

{{Distinguish|Joseph Kara}}
{{Short description|Spanish rabbi and author on Jewish law (1488–1575)}}
{{Moresources|date=March 2024}}
{{merge from|Maran|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox Jewish leader
| honorific-prefix = Rabbi
| name = Joseph Karo
| honorific-suffix = 
| title = {{lang|he|הַמְחַבֵּר}} ''HaMechaber ''<br/>
{{lang|tmr|מָרַן}} ''[[Maran]]''
| image = Postcard portrait of Joseph Karo by Meir Kunstadt, early 1900s.jpg
| caption = Portrait by {{ill|Meir Kunstadt|nl}}, early 1900s
| birth_name = Joseph ben Ephraim Karo
| birth_date = 1488
| birth_place = [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], [[Kingdom of Toledo (Crown of Castile)|Kingdom of Toledo]], [[Crown of Castile]]
| death_date = March 24, 1575
| death_place = [[Safed]], [[Damascus Eyalet]], [[Ottoman Empire]]
| buried = [[Safed Old Jewish Cemetery]]
| nationality = 
| denomination = 
| residence = 
| dynasty = 
| parents = 
| spouse = 
| children = 
| occupation = 
| profession = 
| alma_mater = 
| semicha = 
| signature = Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, signature.svg
}}

'''Joseph ben Ephraim Karo''', also spelled '''Yosef Caro''', or '''Qaro''' ({{langx|he|יוסף קארו}}; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 [[Nisan]] 5335 [[Anno mundi|A.M.]]),<ref>[http://www.ou.org/pardes/bios/caro.htm Rabbi Joseph Karo] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114021809/http://www.ou.org/pardes/bios/caro.htm |date=2009-01-14 }}, OU</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Joseph ben Ephraim Karo {{!}} Jewish scholar {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-ben-Ephraim-Karo|access-date=2021-12-11|website=www.britannica.com|language=en}}</ref> was a prominent [[Sephardic Jews|Sephardic Jewish]] rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of [[Halakha|Jewish law]], the ''[[Beit Yosef (book)|Beit Yosef]]'', and its popular analogue, the ''[[Shulchan Aruch|Shulhan Arukh]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Werblowsky |first=R. J. Zwi |title=Joseph Karo: lawyer and mystic |date=1980 |publisher=Jewish Publ. Society of America |isbn=978-0-8276-0090-4 |location=Philadelphia}}</ref> Karo is regarded as the preeminent halakhic authority of his time,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldish |first=Matt |title=Jewish questions: responsa on Sephardic life in the early modern period |date=2008 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-12264-9 |location=Princeton, N.J |pages=lxi-lxii}}</ref> and is often referred to by the honorific titles '''HaMechaber''' ({{langx|he|הַמְחַבֵּר|lit=the author}}) and '''[[Maran]]''' ({{langx|tmr|מָרַן|lit=our master}}).<ref name="EB">[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/312602/Joseph-ben-Ephraim-Karo Joseph ben Ephraim Karo], ''[[Britannica.com]]''</ref>

==Biography==
Joseph Karo was born in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], Spain, in 1488.<ref name=EB/> In 1492, aged four, he was [[Expulsion of Jews from Spain|expelled from Spain]] with his family as a result of the [[Alhambra Decree]] and subsequently settled in the [[Kingdom of Portugal]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Carsten L. |last=Wilke |title=Histoire des Juifs Portugais |location=Paris |publisher=Chandeigne |year=2007 |isbn=9782915540109 }}</ref> Following his father's death, Karo's uncle Isaac, an author of biblical commentary, adopted him.<ref>[https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-shulhan-arukh/ The Shulchan Aruch], My Jewish Learning</ref> After the [[History of the Jews in Portugal#Portugal|expulsion of the Jews from Portugal]] in 1497, the Ottomans invited the Jews to settle within [[Ottoman Empire|their empire]]. Karo went with his parents, after a brief move to Morocco, to [[Nikopol, Bulgaria|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 [[Edirne|Adrianople]]. He later settled in the city of [[Safed]], [[Ottoman Galilee]], where he arrived about 1535, having ''en route'' spent several years at [[Thessaloniki|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]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Ishtori Haparchi|author-link=Ishtori Haparchi|editor=Avraham Yosef Havatzelet|title=Kaftor wa-Ferach|edition=3 |volume=2 (chapter 11) |page=53 (note 14) |year=2007|location=Jerusalem|language=he|oclc=32307172}}</ref>

==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 [[Holy Land|its sanctity]] and complete his written works. Passing through Salonica, he met the great [[Kabbalah|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 ''[[semicha]]'' (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]], but 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|Zechariah (Yaḥya) al-Dhahiri]], visited Rabbi Karo's ''[[yeshiva]]'' in Safed, in ''circa'' 1567 CE<ref>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.</ref> and wrote of his impressions:<ref>Zachariā Al-Ḏāhrī, ''Sefer Hammusar'' (ed. Yehuda Ratzaby), Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem 1965 (Hebrew), pp. 116–117</ref>

{{quote|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'.<ref>Ecclesiastes 1:15</ref> 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'.<ref>(Psalms 19:7</ref> He then deliberated on a certain matter by explicating its plain and esoteric sense. Before him were seated about two-hundred very admirable and distinguished pupils, sitting upon benches. When he had finished his words of wisdom, he gestured to a certain disciple opposite him to speak. … Now, when that wise man (i.e., Rabbi Joseph Karo) heard the words of that disciple, he was astonished by his eloquence of speech who had given plausible arguments about the soul, and he then raised him up and exalted him above all the pupils that were with him. … I stayed there awhile, until the wise man (i.e., Rabbi Joseph Karo) had gestured to his pupils to stand up, and then gave order to each one to learn a [[Mishna]]. So they went their way, the pupils who were there gathered and the wise man (i.e., Rabbi Joseph Karo).<ref>{{cite web|last=Al-Dhahiri|first=Yaḥya (Zechariah)|title=Sefer Ha-Musar|publisher=Benei Baraq 2008 (Hebrew), pp. 58, 62}}</ref>}}
[[File:Refurbished synagogue of Maran R. Joseph Karo in Safed.jpg|thumb|Synagogue of Maran, R. Joseph Karo, in Safed]]
When Jacob Berab died, Karo was regarded as his successor, and together with Rabbi [[Moses ben Joseph di Trani|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 ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra|David ibn Abi Zimra]] and Rabbi [[Yaakov de Castro|Yaakov Castro]]. He came to be regarded as the leader of the entire generation.

[[File:ציון רבי יוסף קארו.JPG|thumb|250px|Karo's grave in Safed]]

In a dramatic testimonial, Rabbi [[Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz|Shlomo Alkabetz]] testified that in Salonica, Karo had become one of the rare individuals who merited to be instructed by a ''maggid''—a private angelic teacher who revealed to him many kabbalistic teachings. The maggid exhorted Karo to sanctify and purify himself, and he revealed to him events that would take place in the future. In ''Shaarei Kedusha'', Rabbi [[Hayyim ben Joseph Vital|Chaim Vital]] explains that visitation by a maggid is a form of Divine Inspiration ([[Holy Spirit in Judaism|ruach hakodesh]]). The teachings of the maggid are recorded in his published work titled ''Maggid Meisharim'', although Rabbi [[Chaim Yosef David Azulai|Chaim Joseph David Azulai]] notes that only about one fiftieth of the manuscript was ever published, (see Works). However, in numerous places in ''Maggid Meisharim'' it is stated that, "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. (However, these two explanations are not necessarily contradictory—in the merit of the Mishna Karo constantly reviewed, he was worthy of an angelic teacher).

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 [[Solomon Molcho|Rabbi Shlomo Molcho]] had merited, did not transpire for an unspecified reason.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Werblowsky |first=R. J. Zwi |title=Joseph Karo: lawyer and mystic |date=1980 |publisher=Jewish Publ. Society of America |isbn=978-0-8276-0090-4 |location=Philadelphia |pages=97–99}}</ref>

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 [[Carpentras]], [[Kingdom of France|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 (Rev. Etudes Juives 18:133–136). In the East, Karo's authority was, if possible, even greater. His name heads the decree of excommunication 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 [[Dei Rossi]]'s "Me'or 'Enayim" be burned. But, Karo dying 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 have been preserved (Moses Albelda, ''Darash Mosheh''; Samuel Katzenellenbogen, ''Derashot''), as well as some elegies from Karo's passing.

==Published works==
[[File:Brockhaus and Efron Jewish Encyclopedia e9 327-0.jpg|thumb|250px|Title page of Karo's ''[[Shulchan Aruch]]'']]
Karo's literary works are considered among the masterpieces of [[rabbinic literature]]. He published during his lifetime:
* ''[[Beit Yosef (book)|Beit Yosef]]'' (בית יוסף), a commentary on ''[[Arba'ah Turim]]'', the current work of [[halakha|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.<ref name="Britannica">{{EB1911|wstitle= Qaro, Joseph ben Ephraim |volume= 22 |last= Abrahams |first= Israel |author-link= Israel Abrahams | page= 706 |quote=...his second work, the Shulḥan ’Arukh (“Table Prepared”). Finished in 1555, this code was published in four parts in 1565}}.</ref>
* ''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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sefaria.org/Kessef_Mishneh_on_Mishneh_Torah,_Hiring?lang=bi|title=Kessef Mishneh on Mishneh Torah|date=January 14, 2019|publisher=[[Sefaria]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/כסף_משנה|title=Sefer Kessef Mishneh|publisher=[[Wikisource]]|language=he|date=January 14, 2019}}</ref>

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''===
{{Main|Maggid Mesharim}}
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 [[Mishna]] (the authoritative collection of Jewish Oral Law). His visitor spurred him to acts of righteousness and even asceticism, exhorted him to study the Kabbala, and reproved him for moral laxities.

==Burial place==
He is buried in [[Safed Old Jewish Cemetery|Old Cemetery of Safed]].

Other notable rabbis also buried in Old Cemetery of Safed:
* [[Isaac Luria|Ari HaKadosh]]
* [[Moshe Alshich|Alshich Hakadosh]]
* [[Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz]]
* [[Moses ben Jacob Cordovero]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Qaro, Joseph ben Ephraim}}

==External links==
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=188&letter=C Joseph b. Ephraim Caro]
* [https://henryabramson.com/2012/01/27/rabbi-yosef-karo-the-kabbalah-of-halakhah/ Video Lecture on Yosef Karo] by [[Henry Abramson|Dr. Henry Abramson]]
* [https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-00013-J-00024-00028/1 Letter sent and signed by Joseph Karo in Safed, from the Cairo Genizah Collection at Cambridge University Library]
{{Authority control}}

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