Levi (Bet ha-Levi), Abraham ben Joseph

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LEVI (Bet ha-Levi), ABRAHAM BEN JOSEPH

LEVI (Bet ha-Levi ), ABRAHAM BEN JOSEPH (after 1580–shortly after 1618), a rabbi in Salonika of the *Levi (Bet ha-Levi) family. At an early age he showed outstanding intellectual abilities and was ordained rabbi at a very young age. Questions were addressed to him from far and wide and his endorsement was requested to the responsa of prominent rabbis older than himself. He studied under R. David ibn Naḥmias and was a colleague of R. Shabbetai Jonah. He was a member of the bet din of Abraham Ḥazzan, together with whom he often gave his approbation to the responsa of R. Joshua Handali. Abraham's colleague with whom he studied was R. Shabbetai Jonah. In addition to his published responsa (the bulk written between 1608–18), other responsa and approbations appear in the works of several of his contemporaries in Salonika and elsewhere. (His novellae, on several talmudic tractates and on the Arba'ah Turim, have apparently been lost.)

bibliography:

Abraham le-Bet ha-Levi, Ein Mishpat (Salonika, 1897), introduction by editor D. Pipano; Rosanes, Togarmah, 3 (1938), 181–2.

[Joseph Hacker]

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Levi (Bet ha-Levi), Abraham ben Joseph

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