שמואל אוזידא

Rav Shmuel di Uzeda (5305/1545–5364/1604), known in English sources as Samuel de Uceda, was a rosh yeshiva, mekubal and darshan of Tzfat. The family name came from the town of Uceda in Castile, but he himself was born in Tzfat, to Rav Yitzchak di Uzeda. He learned in the beit midrash of Rav Elisha Galiko, under whose influence he became a fiery darshan, and afterward opened a large yeshiva of his own in which both nigleh and nistar were learned. He was among the first talmidim of the Arizal and a friend of Rav Moshe Cordovero; after the Arizal was niftar in 5332/1572 he went on learning kabbalah with Rav Chaim Vital, and in 5335/1575 his name was set to the document by which the chaburah of the Arizal’s talmidim accepted Rav Chaim Vital as their master’s successor. In 5357/1597 he went out as a shaliach to Constantinople, where he also served as rav and darshan.

Like Rav Moshe Alshich, a fellow talmid of the Arizal, his sefarim keep to derush rather than to kabbalah. His chief work is Midrash Shmuel on Pirkei Avot, printed in Venice in 5339/1579, three more times in his lifetime, and dozens of times since. It is in large measure an anthology — a kind of shitah mekubetzet on the masechta — drawing together the commentaries of Rabbeinu Yonah, Rav Meir Abulafia, the Rashbam, the Meiri, Rav Shmuel ibn Sid, Rav Yosef ibn Nachmias and Rav Moshe Almosnino, and setting beside them his own explanations out of the drashot he gave; since a number of those commentaries are no longer in our hands, his sefer is the only place their words survive. He wrote as well Iggeret Shmuel on Megillat Rut, printed in 5357/1597, and Lechem Dimah on Eichah, printed in Venice in 5360/1600, along with commentaries on Esther, Yeshayahu, Iyov and Daniel. His commentary on the Torah, also called Midrash Shmuel, was drawn from his manuscripts and printed in New York in 5775/2015.