Yom Tov Tzahalon

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Yom Tov ben Moshe Tzahalon (Maharitatz) (ca. 1558, Tzfat - 1611) (Hebrew: יום טוב בן משה צהלון) was a student of Moses di Trani and Moshe Alshich, and published a collection of responsa. The Jewish Encyclopedia gives his dates as (1557-1638).

At the early age of twenty-five Tzahalon (Ẓahalon) was requested by Samuel Yafeh, a rabbi of Constantinople, to decide a difficult and complicated problem which had been referred to himself (Ẓahalon, Responsa, No. 40), and he corresponded with most of the authorities of his time, one of his chief antagonists being Moses Galante (the Elder). Although a Sephardi, Ẓahalon rendered a decision in favor of an Ashkenazic congregation in a controversy which arose between the Sephardim and Ashkenazim at Jerusalem, and in his love of truth he did not spare even his teacher, Joseph Caro (ib. No. 238), declaring that the Shulhan Aruk was written for children and laymen (ib. No. 76). Ẓahalon was the author of a commentary on the Book of Esther, entitled Leḳaḥ Ṭob (Safed, 1577). He was the author of responsa and novellæ which were published with a preface by his grandson Yom-Ṭob (Venice, 1694), and he mentions also a second part (ib. No. 102), of which nothing more is known. He likewise wrote a commentary on the Abot de-Rabbi Natan, entitled Magen Abot, which is still extant in manuscript. In his preface to this latter work Ẓahalon terms himself Yom-Ṭob b. Moses ha-Sefardi, whence it is clear that the family came originally from Spain, although it is not known when it emigrated or where Zahalon was born.

[edit] Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography

De Rossi, Dizionario, s.v.;
Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 206;
Dukes, in Orient, Lit. ix. 346;
Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1414
This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.