Abraham de Boton

Rabbi Abraham de Boton (c. 1560 – c. 1605) was a Sephardic halakhic scholar who worked chiefly in Salonika, then a major center of Ottoman Jewish learning, where he led a Talmudic academy. He studied under Rabbi Samuel de Medina, known as the Maharashdam, and served the city's Apulia congregation. His lasting work is Lechem Mishneh, a commentary on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah focused on rulings that appear to diverge from their Talmudic sources; first printed in Venice, it was later incorporated into most standard editions of the code, where it still appears. While at work on it he encountered Joseph Karo's Kesef Mishneh and chose to record only what he could add to Karo's comments. His responsa were collected after his death as Lechem Rav (Smyrna, 1660). He also spent time in the Land of Israel and in Constantinople.