JOSEPH BEN MORDECAI HA-KOHEN

JOSEPH BEN MORDECAI HA-KOHEN, (late 17th and early 18th century), talmudist of jerusalem . Joseph was a pupil of moses b. jonathan galante . From 1706 to 1718 he wandered through various European countries and, while in Venice, arranged for the printing of his own and other works. Toward the end of his life he was appointed rabbi in Ankara, Turkey. He was the author of: Sha'arei Yerushalayim, a collection of religious poems and prayers in praise of Jerusalem (both his own and those of other authors), printed with the annotations of Moses Cohen (Venice, 1707); Divrei Yosef, homilies (ibid., 1710); Likkut Yosef, responsa on the laws of sheḥitah (unpublished). Joseph further edited Zevaḥ ha-Shelamim of Moses Galante (Amsterdam, 1708), as well as the Idrot ha-Kedoshot, based on the manuscripts of the zohar brought by Nathan Shapiro from Jerusalem (ibid., 1708), and also a work entitled Leket ha-Omer, containing diverse prayers according to the custom of the Jews of Corfu (ibid., 1718). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frumkin-Rivlin, 2 (1928), 87, no. 11;4 (1930), 20; Yaari, Sheluḥei, 372f. (Samuel Abba Horodezky) JOSEPH (Joselein) BEN MOSES JOSEPH (Joselein) BEN MOSES (1423–1490?), talmudist and author. Born in Hoechstaedt, Bavaria, he studied under jacob weil at Augsburg, judah minz at Padua, and joseph colon at Mestre. His principal teacher, however, was israel isserlein under whom he studied at Wiener Neustadt for 10 years, and whose statements, customs, and daily conduct he noted carefully. From these notes he wrote his work Leket Yosher (ed. by J. Freimann, 1903), which is a compilation of his teacher's customs, together with his responsa and halakhic decisions. He was apparently the first to base his work on the Arba'ah Turim, but only the sections on the Oraḥ Ḥayyim and Yoreh De'ah are extant. The language of the author is not clear, as he himself admits. He was, however, an extremely precise and conscientious compiler, regularly indicating his sources, comparing different manuscripts, and, on several occasions, pointing out that a responsum he had found was a revised version and not a true copy of the author's original statement. At times he added brief annotations from the Talmud and halakhic authorities. The work is significant also because of the many new responsa of contemporary scholars which are cited and because of its great value for the history of the Jews and scholars of Germany, whose important communities he visited. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Joseph b. Moses, Leket Yosher, ed. by J. Freimann (1903), introd.; S. Eidelberg, Jewish Life in Austria in the 15th Century (1962), index. (Yedidya A. Dinari) JOSEPH BEN MOSES (Ashkenazi), DARSHAN OF PRZEMYSLANY JOSEPH BEN MOSES (Ashkenazi), DARSHAN OF PRZEMYSLANY (17th century), rabbi, preacher, and dayyan. He was noted for his derashot of admonishment. The councils of the lands approved the publication of Ketonet Passim (Lublin, 1691) and Ẓafenat Pa'ne'aḥ he-Ḥadash (Frankfurt on the Oder, 1694), two collections of his sermons. Joseph is also the author of Keter Yosef (Berlin, 1700), a commentary on liturgy. He was suspected of Shabbatean leanings. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Halpern (ed.), Pinkas Va'ad Arba Araẓot (1945), 209, 213f.; idem, Yehudim-ve-Yahadut be-Mizraḥ Eiropah (1968), 85, 95.