13 Facts About Joseph Karo

Joseph Karo went with his parents, after a brief move to Morocco, to Nikopolis, then a city under Ottoman rule.

Joseph Karo was married twice, firstly to Isaac Saba's daughter, and, then after her death, to the daughter of Hayyim Albalag, both of these men being well-known Talmudists.

Joseph Karo later settled in the city of Safed, Ottoman Galilee, where he arrived about 1535, having en route spent several years at Salonica and Istanbul.

Joseph Karo continued his journey to the Holy Land via Egypt and eventually settled in Safed.

Berab exerted great influence upon him, and Joseph Karo became an enthusiastic supporter of Berab's plans for the reinstitution of semicha which had been in abeyance for over 11 centuries.

Joseph Karo was one of the first he ordained and after Berab's death, Joseph Karo tried to perpetuate the scheme by ordaining his pupil Moshe Alshich, but he finally gave up his endeavors, convinced that he could not overcome the opposition to ordination.

Joseph Karo established a yeshiva where he taught Torah to over 200 students.

Joseph Karo then deliberated on a certain matter by explicating its plain and esoteric sense.

When Jacob Berab died, Joseph Karo was regarded as his successor, and together with Rabbi Moshe of Trani he headed the Rabbinical Court of Safed.

Rabbi Joseph Karo was visited in Safed by the great Egyptian scholars of his day, Rabbi David ibn Abi Zimra and Rabbi Yaakov Castro.

Joseph Karo came to be regarded as the leader of the entire generation.

But, Joseph Karo dying before it was ready for him to sign, the decree was not promulgated, and the rabbis of Mantua contented themselves with forbidding the reading of the work by Jews under twenty-five years of age.

Joseph Karo's visitor spurred him to acts of righteousness and even asceticism, exhorted him to study the Kabbala, and reproved him for moral laxities.