יהושע בועז

Rav Yehoshua Boaz ben Shimon of the Baruch family (d. c. 5315/1555), known in English sources as Joshua Boaz, was among the great poskim of the early Acharonim, born in Italy to a family that had gone into exile there after the expulsion from Spain. From the age of twenty-three he composed the works that reveal his vast command of Shas: Mesoret HaShas, cross-references to the parallel passages throughout the Gemara; Torah Ohr, marking the places of the pesukim quoted in the Gemara; and Ein Mishpat Ner Mitzvah, which points from each sugya to the relevant halachot in the Rambam, the Semag, the Tur, and the Shulchan Aruch. These were set into the printing of the Talmud at Venice between 5306/1546 and 5311/1551 and are found in nearly every edition since.

His halachic work Shiltei HaGibborim — also called Sefer HaMachloket — is a commentary on the Rif and on the Mordechai, distilling the rulings that flow from the Rif together with the treatment of them in other Rishonim; the Rema cites it often, calling it the Hagahot Alfasi. Among his known rulings is the heter for women to wear a wig in the public domain, since hair detached from the head, he held, is not “ervah.” In the few places where he names a rebbi he mentions Rav Natan me-Igra, one of the great chachamim of Italy in his day.