Joseph Karo
| Rabbi Joseph Karo | |
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HaMechaber |
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Artistic conception of Karo's appearance
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| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Joseph ben Ephraim Karo |
| Born | 1488 Toledo |
| Died | March 24, 1575 Safed |
| Buried | Safed |
| Signature |  |
HaMechaber
Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro (1488 – March 24, 1575), was author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, which is still authoritative for all Jews pertaining to their respective communities. To this end he is often referred to as HaMechaber (Hebrew: "The Author") and as Maran (Aramaic: "Our Master").
Karo was born in Toledo, Spain in 1488. In 1492, aged four years old, he was forced to flee Spain with his family and the rest of Spanish Jewry as a result of the Alhambra Decree and subsequently settled in Portugal. After the expulsion of the Jews from Portugal in 1497, the Ottomans invited the Jews to settle within the Ottoman Empire. Karo went with his parents to Nikopolis, then a city in the Ottoman Empire, and spent the rest of his life in the Ottoman Empire. In Nikopol, he received his first instruction from his father, who was himself an eminent Talmudist. He married, first, Isaac Saba's daughter, and, after her death, the daughter of Hayyim Albalag, both of these men being well-known Talmudists.
Between 1520 and 1522 Karo settled at Edirne. He later settled in the city of Safed, Land of Israel, where he arrived about 1535, having en route spent several years at Salonica (1533) and Istanbul.
After his first wife died at a young age, he married the daughter of Rabbi Issac Sabba. 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.
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Wikipedia