Baruch ben Isaac of Aleppo
BARUCH BEN ISAAC OF ALEPPO
BARUCH BEN ISAAC OF ALEPPO (c. 1050–c. 1125), scholar. Baruch appears to have been born in Spain, where he studied together with his younger kinsman *Baruch b. Samuel of Aleppo. From there he went to Aleppo where he was the head of a large yeshivah. From 1085 his signature appears on various documents, among them a letter of recommendation on behalf of Obadiah the Proselyte of Normandy. He wrote a commentary on the order Kodashim, of the Babylonian Talmud, which was highly recommended by *Joseph Rosh ha-Seder, who considered it equal to the commentaries of *Hananel b. Ḥushi'el on the orders Mo'ed, Nashim, and Nezikin and of *Isaac b. Melchizedek on Zera'im and Tohorot. He also wrote commentaries on other tractates, including Shabbat (quoted by Isaiah di Trani in his commentary on this tractate) and Bava Meẓia (see Ginzei Kedem, 5 (1934), 131–4). S. Assaf was of the opinion that the commentary on tractate Zevaḥim (Jerusalem, 1942), attributed to Hananel, was by Baruch, but this identification does not appear to be correct.
bibliography:
Mann, in: Ha-Tekufah, 24 (1928), 337, 352–4; Epstein, in: Tarbiz, 16 (1944/45), 49–53; Assaf, ibid., 19 (1947/48), 105–8.
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]