Uncover the journey of Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488-1575), the Spanish-born Jewish legal giant who was expelled from Spain and ultimately rose to become the chief Rabbi of Safed, the 16th-century capital of Kabbalah. We'll explore the epic scope of his work, the Bet Yosef, an encyclopedic commentary on Jewish law that took two decades to write, and its highly accessible condensation, the Shulchan Arukh (The Prepared Table) . This succinct code of law became—together with the glosses of Rabbi Moshe Isserles—the virtually universal standard for Orthodox Jewish practice, unifying disparate communities centuries after their dispersal. But look deeper: Karo, the master codifier of revealed law, also had a mystical life, recording nocturnal visits from his heavenly mentor, the Maggid Mesharim, revealing the profound blend of Halakha and Kabbalah that defined his world.
