Person · 5265–5340 AM · 1505 CE — 1580 CE
The Maharival—Rabbi Yosef ibn Lev רבי יוסף אבן לב
a jurist whose son was killed for his incorruptibility
A native of Monastir; dayyan there, in Salonika from 1534, in Constantinople from 1550. His adversary the sources call simply "Baruch the tyrant": unable to buy the Maharival's court, he hired assassins; the son David was killed, a second son drowned.
Toward Rabbi Yosef Karo's Beit Yosef he was at first severe, then acknowledged its worth—an honest evolution visible across the four parts of his responsa. From 1561 illness ended his regular teaching.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The responsa of the Maharival in four parts — the court that could not be bought
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — Monastir, Salonika, Constantinople and Doña Gracia's yeshiva
Basis: Talmud and midrash.