Joseph Karo

Joseph ben Ephraim Karo (1488 – March 24, 1575), also known as Yosef Caro or Qaro, was a leading Sephardic rabbi and the author of two major codes of Jewish law: the *Beit Yosef* and its more popular version, the *Shulhan Arukh*. He is considered the top halakhic authority of his era and is often called HaMechaber ("the author") and Maran ("our master").

Born in Toledo, Spain, in 1488, Karo was expelled with his family at age four due to the Alhambra Decree of 1492. They moved to Portugal, and after his father died, his uncle Isaac, a biblical commentator, raised him. Following the 1497 expulsion of Jews from Portugal, the Ottoman Empire welcomed them. Karo, along with his parents, briefly stayed in Morocco before settling in Nikopolis, an Ottoman city. There, his father—a noted Talmudist—gave him his first instruction. Karo married twice: first to the daughter of Isaac Saba, then after her death to the daughter of Hayyim Albalag, both prominent Talmudists.

Between 1520 and 1522, he moved to Adrianople. He later settled in Safed, in the Land of Israel, arriving around 1535 after spending several years in Salonica (1533) and Istanbul. By 1555, he was living in the village of Biriyya near Safed, where he finished writing the first order of the *Shulhan Arukh*, *Orach Chayim*.

After a short stay in Nikopol, Karo decided to go to the Land of Israel to immerse in its holiness and complete his writings. Passing through Salonica, he met the kabbalist Joseph Taitazak. He continued via Egypt and eventually settled in Safed. There, he met Jacob Berab and joined his rabbinical court. Berab greatly influenced him, and Karo strongly supported Berab’s plan to reinstitute *semikha* (rabbinical ordination), which had been absent for over 1,100 years. Karo was among the first ordained by Berab, and after Berab’s death, he tried to continue the scheme by ordaining his pupil Moshe Alshich. He eventually abandoned the effort, realizing he could not overcome opposition to ordination. Karo also ran a yeshiva with over 200 students. The Yemenite traveler Zechariah Dhahiri visited this yeshiva in Safed.

When Berab died, Karo succeeded him and, with Moses ben Joseph di Trani, led the Safed *bet din* (rabbinical court). This court became the central authority for the entire Old Yishuv (southern Ottoman Syria) and the Jewish diaspora. No matter of national or global importance escaped its attention, and its rulings were considered final. Scholars from across the diaspora sought Karo’s halakhic decisions, and major Egyptian sages like David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra and Yaakov de Castro visited him. He came to be seen as the leader of his generation.

Solomon Alkabetz testified that in Salonica, Karo was one of the rare individuals instructed by a *maggid*—a private preacher who revealed kabbalistic teachings. This *maggid* urged Karo to sanctify himself and foretold future events. Hayyim ben Joseph Vital explained such a visitation as a form of divine inspiration. The *maggid*’s teachings were recorded in Karo’s published work *Maggid Mesharim* ("Teacher of Righteousness"). Chaim Yosef David Azulai noted that only about one-fiftieth of the manuscript was published. In many places, the *Maggid Meisharim* states, "I am the Mishna that speaks in your mouth," meaning the Oral Torah itself spoke through him. The *maggid* promised Karo he would settle in the Land of Israel, which happened, but another promise—that he would die a martyr like Solomon Molcho—did not.

In his last thirty years, Karo’s reputation surpassed almost any rabbi since Maimonides. The Italian Jew Azariah dei Rossi, despite differing views, raised money among wealthy Italian Jews to print one of Karo’s works. Moses Isserles compelled recognition of a Karo ruling in Kraków, though he had questions about it. When some members of the Carpentras community in the Kingdom of France felt wronged over taxes, they appealed to Karo, and his letter restored their rights. In the east, his authority was even greater. His name heads a decree of *herem* (censure) against Daud, an agent of Joseph Nasi, and he commissioned Elisha Gallico to draft a decree ordering the burning of Azariah dei Rossi’s *Me'or 'Enayim* ("Light of the Eyes"). Because Karo died before signing it, the decree was not issued; instead, the rabbis of Mantua forbade the work to Jews under twenty-five. Several funeral orations and elegies for Karo have survived.