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Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro (; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 Anno mundi), Rabbi Joseph Karo , OU was a prominent Sephardic Jews rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of Halakha, the Beit Yosef, and its popular analogue, the Shulchan Aruch. Karo is regarded as the preeminent halakhic authority of his time, and is often referred to by the honorific titles HaMechaber () and Maran (). Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, Britannica.com
Between 1520 and 1522 Karo settled at Edirne. He later settled in the city of Safed, Ottoman Galilee, where he arrived about 1535, having en route spent several years at Thessaloniki (1533) and Istanbul. By 1555, Joseph Karo was already a resident of the village Biriyya near Safed, during which year he completed writing the first order of the Shulhan Arukh, Orach Chayim.
At Safed, he met Jacob Berab and was soon appointed a member of his rabbinical court. Berab exerted great influence upon him, and Karo became an enthusiastic supporter of Berab's plans for the reinstitution of semikha "rabbinical ordination", which had been in abeyance for over 11 centuries. Karo was one of the first he ordained and after Berab's death, Karo tried to perpetuate the scheme by ordaining his pupil Moshe Alshich. He finally gave up his endeavors, convinced that he could not overcome the opposition to ordination. Karo also established a yeshiva where he taught Torah to over 200 students.
A Yemenite Jews traveler, Zechariah Dhahiri, visited Rabbi Karo's yeshiva in Safed and noted,
When Jacob Berab died, Karo was regarded as his successor, and together with Moses ben Joseph di Trani, he headed the bet din of Safed. By this time, the beth din of Safed had become the central bet din in all of Old Yishuv (southern Ottoman Syria) and of the Jewish diaspora as well. Thus, there was not a single matter of national or global importance that did not come to the attention and ruling of the Safed bet din. Its rulings were accepted as final and conclusive, and sages from every corner of the diaspora sought Karo's halachic decisions and clarifications. Karo was also visited in Safed by the great Egyptian scholars of his day, David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra and Yaakov de Castro. He came to be regarded as the leader of the entire generation.
In a dramatic testimonial, Solomon Alkabetz testified that in Salonica, Karo had become one of the rare individuals who merited to be instructed by a maggid—a private preacher who revealed to him many Kabbalah. The maggid exhorted Karo to sanctify and purify himself, and he revealed events that would take place in the future. In the "Gates of Holiness" (שערי קדושה), Hayyim ben Joseph Vital explains that visitation by a maggid is a form of divine inspiration. The teachings of the maggid are recorded in his published work titled Maggid Mesharim "Teacher of Righteousness". Chaim Yosef David Azulai notes that only about one-fiftieth of the manuscript was published. However, in numerous places in the Maggid Meisharim it states, "I am the Mishna that speaks in your mouth," indicating that the Oral Torah itself (of which the Mishna is the fundamental part) spoke within him.
The Maggid promised him that he would have the merit of settling in the Land of Israel, and this promise was fulfilled. Another promise, that he would merit to die a martyr's death like Solomon Molcho had merited, did not transpire.
His reputation during the last thirty years of his life was greater than that of almost any other rabbi since Maimonides. The Italian Jew Azariah dei Rossi, though his views differed widely from Karo's, collected money among the wealthy Italian Jews to have a work of Karo's printed and Moses Isserles compelled the recognition of one of Karo's decisions at Kraków. However, he had questions on the ruling. When some members of the community of Carpentras in the Kingdom of France believed themselves to have been unjustly treated by the majority in a matter relating to taxes, they appealed to Karo, whose letter was sufficient to restore to them their rightsRev. Etudes Juives 18:133–136 In the east, Karo's authority was, if possible, even greater. His name heads the decree of herem (censure) directed against Daud, Joseph Nasi's agent, and it was Karo who commissioned Elisha Gallico to draw up a decree to be distributed among all Jews ordering that Azariah dei Rossi's "Light of the Eyes" ( Me'or 'Enayim) be burned. Since Karo died before it was ready for him to sign, the decree was not promulgated, and the rabbis of Mantua contented themselves with forbidding the reading of the work by Jews under twenty-five years of age. Several funeral orations delivered on that occasion and some elegies from Karo's passing have been preserved.
After his death, there appeared:
Other notable rabbis also buried in Old Cemetery of Safed:
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