PESANTE, MOSES BEN ḤAYYIM BEN SHEM TOV

PESANTE, MOSES BEN ḤAYYIM BEN SHEM TOV (d. 1573), author and self-appointed emissary of Safed who traveled in Turkey and the Balkans between 1565 and 1573. He was murdered in Greece. Pesante was the author of Ner Mitzvah, a commentary on the azharot of solomon ibn gabirol (Constantinople, 1567; second edition with additions, Salonika, 1569); Yesha Elohim (Constantinople, 1567), including an exposition of the Hoshanot and their relevant customs together with the laws of lulav, and the piyyutim for the Rejoicing of the Law; and Ḥukkat ha-Pesaḥ, a commentary on the Passover Haggadah (Salonika, 1569). Among his unpublished works are a commentary on the order of Zera'im of the Jerusalem Talmud and novellae to the tractate of Kiddushin. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Yaari, Sheluḥei, 236. (Samuel Abba Horodezky)