יוסף חביבא

Rav Yosef ben David Chaviva (c. 5100/1340–c. 5180/1420), known by the name of his sefer as the Nimukei Yosef, was among the chachmei Sefarad and one of the last of the Rishonim. Little of his life is known. He lived in Barcelona, where he learned Torah from the Ran and from the Ran’s talmid Rav Chasdai Crescas, and afterward moved to Saragossa; it appears he lived for a time in Castellón as well. English sources give his name as Joseph ibn Habiba or Joseph Haviva.

His name rests on his commentary to the halachot of the Rif, Nimukei Yosef, which is in the main a gathering and ordering of the words of those before him — above all the Ritva and the Ran — with his own chiddushim marked out in the words “amar hamechaber.” He also cites the Rosh and his own rebbi, the Ram. The work was printed together with the text of the Rif and the commentary of the Ran in Constantinople in 5269/1509, and it appears on the daf of the Rif on seven masechtot; on Moed Katan and on Makkot his commentary was printed by mistake as the commentary of the Ran, as the Chida established. Much of the rest was printed separately in later years: the portions on Ketubot and Nedarim were included in Ishei Hashem (Livorno, 5555/1795), and the portion on Shevuot in Beit HaBechirah of the same year. It appears the work once covered all the halachot of the Rif, but part of it has not reached us.