Biography
Rabbi Yosef Karo was one of the Acharonim, born in Toledo, Spain, in 1488, and settling later in Safed in the Land of Israel, where he passed away in 1575 and was laid to rest in the city’s old Jewish cemetery. Among his students was Rabbi Moshe Alshich.
Simply known as the Maran (title of great honor) was the author of the Shulchan Aruch, and the Beit Yosef commentary on the Tur. He is considered one of the greatest of the Acharonim.
He is remembered with great reverence in Torah literature. The Pele Yoetz brings him as a model of the proper honor due to the great sages, warning that one should not refer to such authorities merely by their family name — “the Rav Karo” — but rather with their full title and name, “Moreinu HaRav Yosef Karo,” since such respect is all the more fitting for our holy teachers.
רבי יוסף קארו, מגדולי הפוסקים, מחבר השולחן ערוך, כסף משנה והבית יוסף. עסק גם בקבלה. מקובל לסמנו כפותח תקופת האחרונים.
Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro, was a prominent Sephardic Jewish rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the Beit Yosef, and its popular analogue, the Shulhan Arukh. Karo is regarded as the preeminent halakhic authority of his time, and is often referred to by the honorific titles HaMechaber and Maran.
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