Joseph Taitatsak

Following the exile from Spain, Joseph ben Solomon Taitatsak settled in Salonika with his father and brother. By the 1520s, Joseph’s reputation as a prominent halakhic authority extended far beyond Salonika. Apart from a short visit to Constantinople in 1531, Joseph spent the rest of his life in Salonika. An ascetic kabbalist, it was said that Joseph only slept in a bed on the eve of the Sabbath. He attracted numerous disciples, some of whom later settled in Safed, and he also had contact with Solomon Molkho during the latter’s visit to Salonika in 1529. Various sources report that a maggid, a divine or angelic voice, imparted secrets to Joseph. A manuscript, copied in 1664, appears to record these revelations, which ostensibly came not from an angel but from God. Some of Joseph’s responsa appear in works by his contemporaries. He also wrote a commentary on Avot, a philosophical commentary influenced by Thomas Aquinas, on Ecclesiastes (Porat Yosef [(A) Fruitful (Son Is) Joseph], 1599), and another on Daniel and the Five Scrolls (Leḥem setarim [Bread of Secrets], 1608). Further works remain in manuscript.