BONASTRUC, ISAAC

BONASTRUC, ISAAC (c. 1400), scholar. Bonastruc was among a group of scholars who settled in algiers after their expulsion from Majorca in 1391. It seems that he was associated with R. Simeon b. Ẓemaḥ Duran and R. isaac b. sheshet Perfet in the preparation of the twelve takkanot pertaining to marital status (1394) which remained in force for several hundred years (cf. Simeon b. Ẓemaḥ Duran, Tashbeẓ, vol. 2 (Amsterdam, 1742), no. 292). Bonastruc had a belligerent, argumentative personality. He was compelled to leave Algiers after 1404, as a result of his slanderous remarks about saul ha-kohen astruc , the leader of the Algiers community. After the latter's death, Bonastruc settled in constantine , where again he was the cause of stormy controversies within the Jewish community because of his opposition to its leaders. He was appeased when he received a grant from the community on the recommendation of Isaac b. Sheshet: at the same time Simeon b. Ẓemaḥ asked the local dayyan, Joseph b. David, not to oppose him. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Epstein, The Responsa of Rabbi Simon b. Ẓemaḥ Duran (19682), 17–19, 26, 66, 84; A.M. Hershman, Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet and His Times (1943), index. (Abraham David)