Joseph Chayyim ben Isaac Selig Caro (1800 – April 21, 1895,
Włocławek
Włocławek (Polish pronunciation: ; german: Leslau) is a city located in central Poland along the Vistula (Wisła) River and is bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park. As of December 2021, the population of the city is 106,928. Loc ...
,
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, now
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
) was a notable
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
. He was educated as an
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
ist, and married the daughter of Rabbi
Tzebi Hirsch Amsterdam of
Konin
Konin (german: Kunau) is a city in central Poland, on the Warta River. It is the capital of Konin County and is located within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Prior to 1999, it was the capital of the Konin Voivodeship (1975–1998). In 2021 the p ...
, government of
Kalisz
(The oldest city of Poland)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = ''Top:'' Town Hall, Former "Calisia" Piano Factory''Middle:'' Courthouse, "Gołębnik" tenement''Bottom:'' Aerial view of the Kalisz Old Town
, image_flag = POL Kalisz flag.svg ...
in Russian Poland, whose pupil he became. He afterward established himself as a merchant in
Gnesen
Gniezno (; german: Gnesen; la, Gnesna) is a city in central-western Poland, about east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. One of the Piast dynasty's chief cities, ...
(Gniezno), near
Posen (Poznań), whence, at about the age of forty, he was called to the rabbinate of
Pinne (Pniewy), in the province of Posen. Later he became rabbi of
Fordon, in the same province, and twenty years after his first call he became rabbi of the progressive and Germanized community of Wloclawek, where he remained until his death. He was one of the first truly Orthodox rabbis in Russia to acquire a correct knowledge of German and to deliver sermons in that language.
Caro was famous not only for his extensive rabbinical knowledge, but also as a preacher. His works remained popular among old-style ''
maggid
A maggid ( he, מַגִּיד), also spelled as magid, is a traditional Jewish religious itinerant preacher, skilled as a narrator of Torah and religious stories. A chaplain of the more scholarly sort is called a '' darshan'' (). The title of '' ...
im'' (preachers) and ''
darshanim'' (
exegetes
Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...
). His first work, ''Minchat Shabbat'', is a German translation (in Hebrew characters) of ''Pirqe Abot'', with a short commentary in German and a longer one in Hebrew (Krotoschin, 1847). In the third edition of that work (Wilna, 1894) the German commentary is omitted, and that of
Maimonides
Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Tora ...
is substituted for it. Caro's ''Teba we-Haken'' – containing rules of ''
shechita
In Judaism, ''shechita'' (anglicized: ; he, ; ; also transliterated ''shehitah, shechitah, shehita'') is slaughtering of certain mammals and birds for food according to ''kashrut''.
Sources
states that sheep and cattle should be slaughtere ...
'' (ritual slaughter) and ''
bedikah In Judaism, ''bedikah'' (, "inspection", ''bedikot'') may refer to:
* checking if a ''niddah'' (menstruant woman) has stopped menstruating
* checking if ''shechita
In Judaism, ''shechita'' (anglicized: ; he, ; ; also transliterated ''shehi ...
'' (verification) in the form of a dialogue – was published by his sons Isaac and Jacob (Leipzig, 1859; 2d ed., Wilna, 1894). His chief work, ''Qol Omer Qera'', is a collection of sermons in four volumes (Warsaw, 1860–80; 2d ed., Wilna, 1895), arranged after the order of the
Pentateuch
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
in the weekly sections, which furnished the texts.
The last of his published works, ''Yoreh u-Malqosh'' (Wilna, 1894), is also a collection of sermons, mostly funeral orations, some of which were originally delivered in German. Here and there in his works are to be found poetical compositions and other traces of the influence of modern ideas not common among the rabbis of Russian Poland. His inclination toward the ''
Haskalah
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...
'' and its Neo-Hebrew literature is shown by the article which he contributed, at a very advanced age, to the year-book ''
Ha-Asif'' (iv. 132-137, Warsaw, 1887), entitled "Birkat ha-Tzeduqim." Caro was also a pioneer
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
and defended the colonization of
Palestine against the opponents of that plan. Two of his letters on the subject are printed in ''Shibat Tzion''. He attended to his rabbinical duties until past the age of ninety, and retired from active work only a few years before his death.
One of Caro's sons became a professor at the
University of Breslau
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, and two others were the rabbis, respectively, of
Lemberg (Lviv) and
Thorn
Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to:
Botany
* Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants
* ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species
Comics and literature
* Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...
(Toruń).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caro, Joseph Chayyim ben Isaac Selig
1800 births
1895 deaths
People from Włocławek
Polish Orthodox rabbis
19th-century rabbis from the Russian Empire