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Karo, Joseph ben Ephraim
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[German Version]

(1488, Toledo or Portugal – 1575, Safed). Karo was the greatest Jewish legal scholar of the modern period; his legal works are still considered normative. During or shortly before the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, his family left Spain and settled in Turkey. In 1536 he moved to Zefat, then a center of Kabbalistic circles (Kabbalah: II). His most important work is the Bet Yosef [House of Joseph], a commentary on the entire halakhic tradition (Halakhah), which provided the basis for the condensed version, the Shulchan ʿarukh [Prepared table], which even today remains…

Cite this page
Dan, Joseph, “Karo, Joseph ben Ephraim”, in: Religion Past and Present. Consulted online on 28 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1877-5888_rpp_SIM_11327>
First published online: 2011
First print edition: ISBN: 9789004146662, 2006-2013



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