Joshua Boaz ben Simon Baruch

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Rabbinical Eras

Joshua Boaz ben Simon Baruch (d. 1557) was a prominent Talmudist who lived at Sabionetta, and later at Savigliano. He was a descendant of an old Judæo-Spanish family, and probably settled in Italy after the banishment of the Jews from Spain.

When he was twenty-three years old, he began to publish useful works on the Talmud, in which he displayed vast erudition. These works are:

  • Massoret ha-Shas or Massoret ha-Talmud (The Masorah of the Talmud), an index of the parallel passages of the Talmud and the halakic Midrashim
  • En Mishpaṭ, Ner Miẓwah (The Eye of the Law, the Light of the Precept), an index of the Talmudical Halakot quoted in Maimonides' Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah and in the Turim of Jacob ben Asher
  • Torah Or (The Torah Is Light), an index of the Biblical passages mentioned in the Talmud. These three works were first published, together with the Talmud, at Venice, 1546-1551
  • Ḳiẓẓur Mordekai we-Simanaw, a compendium of Mordecai ben Hillel's halakic work arranged according to the order of the Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah. The same work was also published (Sabionetta, 1554) under the title Ḥiḳḳur Dine Mordekai;
  • Shilṭe ha-Gibborim (Shields of Heroes), a selection of critical notes on Alfasi's compendium of the Talmud, and on the Mordekai. This work bears also the title Sefer ha-Maḥloḳet.

[edit] Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography

  • Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii. 571-573;
  • Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, ii. 141, 142;
  • Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1554;
  • Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 92;
  • Mortara Indice Alfabetico, p. 6;
  • Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 672;
  • Rabbinovicz, Ma'amar 'al Hadfasat ha-Talmud, pp. 43-45.

[edit] References