הרב יוסף מטראני

Rav Yosef Trani (5329/1568–14 Tammuz 5399/1639), known as the Maharit, was among the foremost poskim of his age and the son of the Mabit, Rav Moshe Trani — and is not to be confused with his father. He was born in Tzfat, and when he was about twelve his father was niftar; he then learned for seven years under Rav Shlomo Sagis, son-in-law of the Arizal, until his rebbe was taken in a plague in 5346/1586, the year the Maharit married. He went down to Mitzrayim, returned to Tzfat, and when plague struck again found refuge in Yerushalayim, where he wrote a treatise on the Beit HaMikdash, its measurements and its form.

Drought and famine later brought the kehillah of Tzfat low, and Rav Yosef was chosen as a shadar to travel to Constantinople and gather funds for the yishuv; on his return he was appointed head of the Tzfat community. As Tzfat declined he moved to Constantinople, where the wealthy of the city built him a beit midrash and talmidim streamed to him from across Turkey and beyond. Among them were Rav Chaim Benveniste, the Knesset HaGedolah, whom he cherished and encouraged to write; his brother Rav Yehoshua Raphael Benveniste; Rav Shmuel HaLevi, rebbe of the author of the Mishneh LaMelech; and Rav Chaim Abulafia. After some twenty years he was raised to Chacham Bashi, chief rabbi of Turkey, answering thousands of she’elot, and founded a beit din for issur v’heter in the city.

The Shu’t Maharit is written in three parts, together with his chiddushim on Kiddushin and portions of Shabbat and Ketubot, first printed in Venice in 5404/1644; he also wrote Tzofnat Pane’ach on the Torah and the moadim and commentaries on the Ran, the Rif and the Rambam, though most of his writings were not preserved. He was niftar in Constantinople on the 14th of Tammuz 5399 and eulogized by its rabbanim, his son Rav Yeshaya Trani taking his place at the head of the yeshiva. Though he was buried there, his sons later carried his remains to the old cemetery of Tzfat, as he had asked, to rest beside his father; his kever was found in 5768/2008, near that of Rav Moshe Alshich.