Benveniste, Joseph ben Moses de Segovia

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BENVENISTE, JOSEPH BEN MOSES DE SEGOVIA

BENVENISTE, JOSEPH BEN MOSES DE SEGOVIA (second half of the 16th century), rabbi and author. Benveniste spent most of his life in Safed but died in Brusa, Turkey. His principal teacher was Elisha *Gallico, but he also studied under Isaac *Luria and Samuel b.Isaac de *Uceda. Joseph *Ganso, rabbi of Brusa, was his pupil. He wrote many works which were lost. Benveniste mentions two of them: Be-Ẓel ha-Kesef, an ethical work modeled on the Kad ha-Kemaḥ of *Baḥya b. Asher, and Yakhol Yosef (also erroneously called Yevul Yosef) containing various novellae. A number of his biblical comments, including interpretations he learned from Isaac *Luria, are quoted in the Dovev Siftei Yeshenim (Smyrna, 1671) of his grandson Nissim Solomon *Algazi.

bibliography:

Scholem, in: Beḥinot, 9 (1956), 82; Tamar, in: Tarbiz, 27 (1957/58), 105–8; M. Benayahu, Sefer Toledot ha-Ari (1967), 362–4.

[Abraham David]