יוסף אבן שם טוב

Joseph ibn Shem-Tov, also known as Rabbi Yosef ibn Shem Tov (יוסף אבן שם טוב), was a rishon of Sefarad in the fifteenth century, born in Castile and niftar in 1480. He headed a yeshiva, wrote many works, and was among the leading talmidei chachamim of his generation, with wide knowledge of the sciences and of philosophy, including the writings of Aristotle and Ibn Rushd (Averroes).

His father, Rabbi Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov, author of Sefer HaEmunot, was one of the strongest opponents of the study of philosophy and wrote against the Rambam, Ibn Ezra and the Ralbag. Rabbi Yosef, like his brother Rabbi Yitzchak ibn Shem Tov, took the other side and supported the Rambam. His son, also named Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov, wrote a peirush on the Moreh Nevuchim.

He lived in several cities of Spain: Medina del Campo in 1441, Alcalá de Henares in 1451 and Segovia in 1454. He held an official post at the court of King Juan II of Castile, which brought him into contact with learned Christians. In the introduction to his peirush on Profiat Duran’s Al Tehi KaAvotecha he describes a debate he held with a Christian on the Trinity. In 1452 the king’s son Enrique, Prince of Asturias, sent him to Segovia to prevent attacks on the Jews at Easter. In his writings he speaks of much suffering, of being driven from place to place, and of a serious illness. A passage in Or HaChaim of Rabbi Yosef Yaavetz has been taken to mean that he was killed al kiddush Hashem (as a martyr).

He wrote both works of his own and peirushim on the works of others. Among his own works is Hanhagat HaBayit, on managing a household.

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