שלמה בן שמעון דוראן

Rav Shlomo ben Shimon Duran (c. 5160/1400–5227/1467), the Rashbash, was av beit din and rav of Algiers, son and successor of the Tashbetz, and a posek whose word carried across North Africa and beyond — the Beit Yosef cites dozens of his rulings and follows him almost without exception. Born in Algiers into the aristocracy of the exile — sixth in descent from the Ramban and from Rabbeinu Yonah — he learned under his great father, joined his beit din in his youth, and was answering the she’eilot of the North African communities, and of Yerushalayim itself, while the Tashbetz still lived. On his father’s passing in 5204/1444 he took his seat, and held it until his own.

At his father’s command he wrote, in 5198/1438, the Milchemet Mitzvah — the defense of the Talmud against the attacks of the meshumad Yehoshua HaLorki, continuing the war his father’s Keshet U’Magen had begun. His responsa, the She’eilot u’Teshuvot HaRashbash, range across halachah and aggadah with a clear head and a wide learning — medicine, the sciences and philosophy served his psak — and pieces of his Torah entered the Shulchan Aruch itself: his tefillah for the halting of excessive rains, and his ruling that in an age of dangerous roads spouses cannot compel one another to move to Eretz Yisrael — written by a posek who elsewhere defends the mitzvah of yishuv Eretz Yisrael with full force, answering one who belittled it that the lack of a deed is itself a great lack in a man.

His Tikkun Soferim on the laws of documents is printed with the Yavin Shemuah. His sons continued the dynasty — Rav Tzemach succeeded him, and Durans led the Torah of Algiers for a century and a half more.