ר׳ משה בן יוסף מטראני

ר׳ משה בן יוסף מטראני (1500–1580), the המבי״ט, was a central halakhic authority and communal leader of sixteenth-century Safed. Born in Salonika into a family originating in Trani, Italy, he studied as a boy in Adrianople under his uncle ר׳ אהרן מטראני. At about sixteen he moved to Safed and completed his studies under ר׳ יעקב בירב. From 1525 he served the city for more than five decades as rabbi, dayan and head of an academy, working alongside—and sometimes disagreeing sharply with—ר׳ יוסף קארו. After Karo’s death he became the senior spiritual authority of the Safed community. His hundreds of responsa address the commercial, agricultural, family and communal realities of the Ottoman Jewish world. קרית ספר systematically identifies the biblical or rabbinic basis of the laws in Maimonides’ משנה תורה, while בית אלהים treats prayer, repentance and fundamental beliefs. His legal rulings are particularly important for the renewed agricultural settlement of the Land of Israel. Conflicting modern reference traditions date him 1500–1580 or 1505–1585; this record uses the Encyclopaedia Judaica chronology.