QARO (or

See also:

• CARO, ANNIBALE (1507-1566)
• CARO, ELME MARIE (1826-1887)

CARO),

See also:

• JOSEPH
• JOSEPH, COMTE DE (1785-1870)
• JOSEPH, FATHER (FRANCOIS LECLERC DU TREMBLAY) (1577-1638)

JOSEPH

See also:

• BEN (from Old Eng. bennan, within)

BEN

See also:

• EPHRAIM

EPHRAIM (1488-1575)  , codifier of Jewish law, whose code is still authoritative with the mass of Jews, was born in 1488 . As a child he shared in the expulsion from Spain (1492), and like most prominent Jews of the period was forced to migrate from place to place . In 1535 he settled in Safed, Palestine, where he spent the rest of his life . Safed was then the headquarters of Jewish mysticism . Qaro was himself a mystic, for the tribulations of the time turned many men's minds towards Messianic hopes; nor was he by any means the only great Jewish legalist who was also a mystic . Mysticism in such minds did not take the form of a revolt against authority, but was rather the spiritual flower of pietism than an expression of antinomianism . It is, however, as a legalist that Qaro is best known . In learning and critical power he was second only to Maimonides in the realm of Jewish law . He was the author of two great works, the second of which, though inferior as an intellectual feat, has surpassed the first in popularity . This was inevitable, for the earlier and greater book was designed exclusively for specialists . It was in the form of a commentary (entitled Beth Yoseph) on the Turim (see 'ASHER BEN YEHIEL) . In this commentary Qaro shows an astounding mastery over the Talmud and the legalistic literature of the middle ages .

He

felt called upon to systematize the laws and customs of Judaism in face of the disintegration caused by the Spanish expulsion . But the Beth Yoseph is by no means systematic . Qaro's real aim was effected by his second work, the Shulltan 'Arukh (" Table Prepared ") . Finished in 1555, this code was published in four parts in 1565 . The work was not accepted without protest and criticism, but after the lapse of a century, and in consequence of certain revisions and amplifications, it became the almost unquestioned authority of the whole Jewish world . Its influence was to some extent evil . It "put Judaism into a strait-jacket." Independence of judgment was inhibited, and the code stood in the way of progressive adaptation of Jewish life to the life of Europe . It included trivialities by the side of great principles, and retained elements from the past which deserved to fall into oblivion . But its good effects far outweighed the bad . It was a bond of union, a bar to latitudinarianism, an accessible guide to ritual, ethics and law . Above all, it gave a new lease of life to the great theory which identified life with religion . It sanctified the home, it dignified common pursuits .

When, however, the era of reform dawned in the 19th century, the new Judaism found itself impelled to assume an attitude of hostility to Qaro's code . See

Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, vol. ix . (English trans. vol. iv.); Ginzberg, in Jewish Encyclopedia, arts . " Caro "and" Codification "; Schechter, Studies in Judaism, second series, pp . 202 seq . (I .