Meʿam Loʿez (Heb. From a people of strange speech; see Psalm 114:1) is a multivolume comprehensive commentary on the Pentateuch and other books of the Bible in Judeo-Spanish. The concept originated with Jacob Culi, who was only able to complete the first volume, on Genesis, published in Istanbul in 1730, and part of Exodus before his death in 1732. It was continued by a dozen other authors in the following century and a half. Culi’s unfinished commentary on Exodus was completed by Isaac Magriso (1746), who also did the volumes on Leviticus (1753), and Numbers (1764). The Meʿam Loʿez, conside…