JOSEPH BEN BARUCH OF CLISSON

JOSEPH BEN BARUCH OF CLISSON (first half of the 13th century), French tosafist. Joseph lived in Paris and was associated with judah b. isaac sir leon . He was one of the leaders of the 300 scholars who went to settle in Ereẓ Israel in 1211. On his way there he passed through Egypt where he met Abraham, the son of Maimonides. In Ereẓ Israel the poet and traveler Judah Al-Ḥarizi met him and refers to him in his Tahkemoni (ed. by A. Kaminka (1899), 353. with great respect. Joseph is frequently mentioned in the standard tosafot to several tractates under different names such as "Joseph of Jerusalem," "Joseph who has gone to the Pleasant Land" (Ereẓ ha-Ẓevi; Jer. 3:19), and "Joseph of Israel." A comparison of parallel passages shows that they all refer to Joseph of Clisson or Joseph b. Baruch. His rulings are mentioned in many of the works of the rishonim, including meir b. baruch of rothenburg . Joseph's brother Meir was also one of the emigrants to Israel, but few statements by him have been preserved. There is reason to suppose that Joseph was the teacher of Samuel b. Solomon of Paris, the teacher of Meir of Rothenburg. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Urbach, Tosafot, 265–7; S.H. Kook, Iyyunimu-Meḥkarim, 2 (1963), 258–62. (Israel Moses Ta-Shma)