CARO (KARA), JOSEPH

(1488-1575)

   Spanish talmudic codifier. He was born in Toledo, then settled in Turkey after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. In 1536 he left Turkey for Safed where he was the head of a large yeshivah. His Bet Yoseph (House of Joseph) is a commentary on Jacob ben Asher's Arbaah Turim. He also compiled its classical abbreviation, Shulhan Arukh (The Prepared Table). His codes were criticized by Ashkenazi scholars, who claimed that they ignored French and German traditions. Nevertheless, the Shulhan Arukh (printed with Moses Isserles' strictures) became the authori-tative code for Orthodox Jewry.