Send a Prayer to the grave of R. Yosef Caro

Passing (yarzeit) is the 13th of Nissan. Rabbi Yosef Caro lived from 5248-5335 / 1488-1575 CE. He is most famous as the author of the Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law. He is also known for his monumental commentary, Beit Yosef, on the entire Arbaah Turim. Together with his great assiduousness in Torah study, Rabbi Caro lived a somewhat ascetic life of numerous fasts and self-infliction. Rabbi Caro was the co-head of the Rabbinical Court of Safed in an era when it was the central rabbinical court in all of Israel, and indeed of the entire world. Thus there was not a single matter of national or global importance that did not come to the attention and ruling of the Safed Beit Din. Its rulings were accepted as final and conclusive, and Rabbi Yosef's halachic decisions and clarifications were sought by sages from every corner of the world. He came to be regarded as the leader of the entire generation. Although he rarely touched upon kabbalistic matters and customs in his legal writings, Rabbi Yosef Caro was very involved in the study of kabbala. He merited to be instructed by a maggid, a private angelic teacher, who revealed to him many kabbalistic teachings. The maggid exhorted Rabbi Yosef to sanctify and purify himself, and he revealed to him events that would take place in the future. The kabbalistic teachings found in Rabbi Yosef's Maggid Meisharim are in the style of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero's kabbala, rather than the style of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (the Arizal). Nevertheless, Rabbi Chaim Vital, the chief disciple of the Arizal, extolled the greatness of Rabbi Yosef's soul, saying that it stemmed from the soul of the great Tanna Rabbi Yehuda bar Ila'i and had an affinity with the souls of Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet (the Rashba), Rabbi Aharon HaLevi (the Raah) and Rabbi Vidal di Tolouse. In the year 5324 (1564 CE) Rabbi Yosef's second wife, who had borne him his son Shlomo, passed away. Following the dictate of the Sages that a man should not live without a wife, he married again, despite his age. His third wife was the daughter of Rabbi Zecharia ben Shlomo Zavasil Ashkenazi, one of the sages of Jerusalem. When he was in his eighties his wife bore him another son, Yehuda. Rabbi Yosef continued to occupy himself with Torah study and writing while fulfilling his duties as the head of the Rabbinical Court in Safed for the remainder of his extremely productive life.