BARUCH, JOSHUA BOAZ BEN SIMON BEN ABRAHAM:

By: Louis Ginzberg, Isaac Broydé

A prominent Talmudist; lived at Sabionetta, later at Savigliano; died in 1557. He was a descendant of an old Judæo-Spanish family, and probably settled in Italy after the banishment of the Jews from Spain. When he was twenty-three years old, he began to publish useful works on the Talmud, in which he displayed vast erudition. These works are: (1) "Massoret ha-Shas" or "Massoret ha-Talmud" (The Masorah of the Talmud), an index of the parallel passages of the Talmud and the halakic Midrashim; (2) "'En Mishpaṭ, Ner Miẓwah" (The Eye of the Law, the Light of the Precept), an index of the Talmudical Halakot quoted in Maimonides' "Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah" and in the Turim of Jacob ben Asher; (3) "Torah Or" (The Torah Is Light), an index of the Biblical passages mentioned in the Talmud. These three works were first published, together with the Talmud, at Venice, 1546-51; (4) "Ḳiẓẓur Mordekai we-Simanaw," a compendium of Mordecai ben Hillel's halakic work arranged according to the order of the "Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah." The same work was also published (Sabionetta, 1554) under the title "Ḥiḳḳur Dine Mordekai"; (5) "Shilṭe ha-Gibborim" (Shields of Heroes), a selection of critical notes on Alfasi's compendium of the Talmud, and on the "Mordekai." This work bears also the title "Sefer ha-Maḥloḳet."

L. G. I. Br.