תּוֹלְדוֹת
Rabbi Shimon ben Chelbo Kara was a chacham of France who lived at Mans in the eleventh century. He was the brother of Rabbi Menachem ben Chelbo and the father of Rabbi Yosef Kara. Rabbi Yitzchak de Lattes counts him in his Kiryat Sefer among the leading chachamim of France, though no work of his has survived.
The family name Kara is generally understood as denoting an occupation — one who reads or explains the written Torah — and Adolf Jellinek noted that Kara, set against derash, marks the one who represents the plain sense of the pesukim.
במקום שהמסורות חלוקות. Shlomo Yehudah Rapoport identified him with the compiler of the Yalkut Shimoni, on the strength of similarities between midrashic quotations there and citations in Rashi's commentary; Avraham Epstein showed that the name Kara does not appear in the manuscripts and that Shimshon is sometimes found in place of Shimon.
רבי שמעון בן חלבו קרא היה רב צרפתי שחי במנס בראשית המאה ה-11, בן דורו של רש"י. אחיו של מנחם בן חלבו ואביו של יוסף קרא. התואר 'קרא' ניתן לו ככל הנראה על שם עיסוקו העיקרי, בתחום המקרא, שאותו גם הורה לאחרים.
Simeon ben Helbo Kara was a French rabbi who lived in Mans in the 11th century; brother of Menahem ben Helbo and father of Joseph Ḳara. Isaac de Lattes, in his Ḳiryat Sefer, counts Ḳara among the prominent French rabbis, although no work of his has survived. J.L. Rapoport identified him with the compiler of the Yalḳuṭ Shim'oni, on account of the similarity of some Midrashic quotations in this work with citations in Rashi's Bible commentary. Abraham Epstein has, however, shown that in the manuscripts the name "Ḳara" does not occur, and in place of "Simeon" the reading "Simson" at times is found.