יהודה רוזאניס

Rav Yehuda Rosanes (5417/1657–22 Nisan 5487/1727), known to every lomed by his Mishneh LaMelech, was among the leading poskim of Kushta and served as chief rabbi of the Ottoman Empire. He was born in Kushta to Rav Shmuel; his father-in-law was Rav Avraham ben Meir Rosanes the Elder, whose comments he brings in several places in his sefarim. His rebbe was Rav Shmuel HaLevi, mentioned in his writings alongside Rav Shmuel’s own rebbe, the Maharit. Rav Yehuda established a yeshiva to which many talmidim streamed and sat as posek and av beit din, supporting himself through commerce and banking; on account of his command of Arabic and Turkish the government appointed him chacham bashi. The poskim cite him under the title HaRav HaTanna.

Most of his kesavim were stolen, according to the testimony of his talmid and editor Rav Yaakov Culi. What reached us bears his name in every beit midrash: the Mishneh LaMelech, glosses and comments on the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, printed in Kushta in 5491/1731 and afterward set beside the Mishneh Torah itself; Parashat Derachim (Kushta 5487/1727), twenty-six homiletic treatises on a range of subjects; Derech Mitzvotecha, on the counting of the mitzvot, which sets the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvot against the Ramban’s hasagot and the Semag and shows how each shitah arrives at the tally of 613 — 248 asei and 365 lo taasei — and how the principles of each are worked out in its details; and notes on the Sefer HaChinuch, brought out in Frankfurt an der Oder in 5543/1783 and, after corruptions crept into them, edited afresh by Rav Chaim Dov Chavel and published by Mosad HaRav Kook in Yerushalayim in 5712/1952.

Rav Yehuda stood sharply against Shabtai Tzvi and the Shabbateans, signed writs of cherem against Natan HaAzati, Nechemia Chiyun, and Chaim Malach, and was among the signers of an appeal to the German kehillot to oppose the movement. Beside Rav Yaakov Culi, who served as editor and publisher of his works, his prominent talmidim included Rav David Falcon, author of the commentary Bnei David on the Rambam, and Rav Chaim Kimchi. Sefarim of the generation carry his haskamot, among them Rav Yosef Almosnino’s Edut BiYehosef. He was niftar in Kushta at an advanced age.