A Voice of Truth in a World of Compromise: The Life and Legacy of Rabbi Yosef ben Lev

A Mysterious Signature

In the winter of 1533–1534, a letter was published by the rabbinic leadership of the Jewish community of Salonika. It contained various communal regulations, nothing particularly historic, until readers noticed something unusual in the list of signatories. The first to sign was Rabbi Yosef Taitatzak, a towering figure among the Jews who had been exiled from Spain and a disciple of Rabbi Levi ben Chaviv in pre-expulsion Spain. After fleeing during the expulsion, he settled in Salonika and founded a renowned yeshiva where future luminaries such as the Alshich, the Radvaz, and Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz studied. The second name was that of the Beit Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Karo, also exiled from Spain and a student of Rabbi Taitatzak.

But then came a surprise: the third signature belonged to “Rabbi Yosef ben Lev.” Few people recognized the name. Those who did knew him only as a 34-year-old scholar who had arrived in the city just a few months earlier. Who was this young man? And why was he placed shoulder to shoulder with the giants of the generation?

The Heavy Price of Uncompromising Integrity

Rabbi Yosef ben Lev was born in Monastir, Macedonia, and was recognized early on for his unmatched brilliance and sharp intellect. But his defining trait was his fierce moral integrity. He refused to tolerate injustice under any circumstances, and although this commitment brought him great hardship, he accepted it all with love, as long as he could remain faithful to the truth.

He arrived in Salonika after a troubling incident in his hometown: a man had threatened to inform on the community rabbi unless a legal ruling went his way. Rabbi Yosef could not remain silent. He launched a public protest against the extortion and capitulation, which placed his life at risk. The authorities saw things differently, and he was forced to flee the country. Once in Salonika, the leading sages quickly recognized his sharp mind, vast knowledge, and unwavering dedication to justice. They appointed him head of the rabbinical court, confident that no one embodied the Torah’s commandment “Do not fear any man” more than he did.

But this principled stance soon came at a terrible cost. One of the wealthy Conversos (forced converts from Spain) living in Salonika, a powerful man named Baruch, was summoned to court. Due to his wealth and influence, he assumed he would win. He had supported and manipulated various rabbis and community leaders and expected the same outcome. He was stunned by Rabbi Yosef’s refusal to bend. Enraged, he began to make veiled threats about what would happen if the verdict went against him. After the unfavorable ruling, Baruch stormed out of court, warning: “You haven’t heard the last from me.”

From that moment, Rabbi Yosef became the target of a relentless campaign of harassment. Baruch’s allies, some of them scholars, accused Rabbi Yosef of speaking disrespectfully about revered sages of earlier generations. While his halachic (Jewish legal) writings were indeed forceful, this was in line with traditional Torah discourse, where even great scholars sometimes dispute one another. Nonetheless, they smeared his reputation and escalated to personal attacks.

The situation reached its tragic peak when Baruch hired assassins to murder Rabbi Yosef’s son David. One night, as David left the city, two young non-Jews attacked and stabbed him to death. Rabbi Yosef was devastated but never regretted his decision to uphold the Torah’s law: “Do not fear any man.” Still, opposition to him grew. As he wrote, the world is a world of falsehood, and it cannot tolerate people of truth.

The growing communal rift split the community between Baruch’s supporters and opponents. The tensions turned toxic, involving government informants and malicious scheming. At one point, Baruch encountered Rabbi Yosef in public and slapped him across the face. Bystanders were too afraid to intervene. Not long afterward, a devastating fire and plague struck the Jewish community.

From Exile to Influence: Writing in Constantinople

Eventually, Rabbi Yosef could no longer bear the strife and left Salonika for Constantinople (Istanbul), then a thriving center of Torah and Jewish life. There, he came under the patronage of the noblewoman Doña Gracia Mendes, who supported him financially so he could devote himself to Torah study. It was in Constantinople that he composed his halachic responsa, brilliant and complex writings that only the most learned could fully grasp. The late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was one of the few who studied them closely and often quoted them.

One of Rabbi Yosef ben Lev’s best-known rulings was that forced converts from Spain who conducted Jewish marriage ceremonies (kiddushin) while living as Christians had not effected valid marriages and that there was no need to treat them as such.

The Chida (Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai) records that Rabbi Yosef had sixty students, each of whom had mastered a tractate of the Talmud. Whenever he issued a halachic ruling, he would gather them to review their respective tractates to ensure there was no contradiction in all of Shas. The Chida adds that because of his Torah greatness, Heaven had initially decreed that Rabbi Yosef ben Lev would be the one to compose the Shulchan Aruch, the definitive code of Jewish law. However, due to the extraordinary humility of Rabbi Yosef Karo, it was ultimately decided that he would be the one to write it.

Final Years and Enduring Legacy

In his seventies, Rabbi Yosef became ill. He returned to Salonika to seek treatment and, even bedridden in a foreign city, continued answering halachic questions. He signed these final responsa “the bitter and the anguished.”

He passed away around the year 1579, at approximately 75 years old, and was buried in Constantinople.