Rabbi Elijah Mizrahi רבי אליהו מזרחי

Born at Constantinople about 1450 into a Romaniote family—that is, among those who were there before the Sephardim. He studied with Rabbi Elijah ha-Levi and Rabbi Mordecai Comitiano. After Capsali's death he became the first man among the rabbis of the empire—again without a title: the authority came from recognition.

He is known above all for his supercommentary on Rashi's commentary on the Torah (Venice, 1527). The book works out where Rashi takes each of his explanations from and what compelled him to it—and it gave rise to a whole literature: later generations were writing answers to him.

He left a hundred and forty responsa, and questions came from everywhere. Two of his rulings are worth naming. First: he supported the Spanish exiles—but defended the long-established too against having another custom imposed on them; that is, he refused to settle whose minhag governs by force of numbers. Second: he ruled that Karaites may be taught Torah—while holding to the prohibition of marriage with them, on halakhic grounds. He kept the two apart: to teach, yes; to intermarry, no.

Besides this he wrote on mathematics and astronomy: the Sefer ha-Mispar on reckoning, and commentaries on Ptolemy's Almagest and Euclid's Elements. For a rabbi of the Ottoman Empire this is no oddity but part of that circle's learning.