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Tashbatz

Tashbatz

1361 CE–1444 CE · Rishonim · Palma de Mallorca

Shimon ben Tzemach Duran, known as the Tashbatz (an acronym of his name), was a leading Sephardic halakhic authority and philosopher of the 14th–15th centuries. Born in Majorca, he fled the anti-Jewish massacres of 1391 with his family to Algiers, where from 1407 he served as chief rabbi — succeeding the Rivash (Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet) — and as a prominent legal decisor. The Tashbatz was known for his meticulous halakhic rulings, his philosophical writings that engaged Aristotelian thought within a Jewish framework, and his responsa addressing the practical needs of North African Jewry. He also composed works on logic and ethics. His son, Rabbi Solomon ben Simon Duran (the Rashbash), succeeded him and carried on a rabbinic dynasty in Algiers, and the Tashbatz's influence extended throughout the Mediterranean Sephardic world.

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Stop 1 of 21361–1391Born

Palma de Mallorcaפלמה דה מיורקהMajorca (Spain)

What they did here

Born in Majorca into a distinguished family; a Torah scholar and practicing physician until the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 reached the Balearic Islands.

About Palma de Mallorca

Palma, the chief city of the island of Majorca (Mallorca), then part of the Crown of Aragon, had a significant medieval Jewish community until the anti-Jewish violence of 1391 and the forced conversions that followed. Rabbi Shimon ben Tzemach Duran (the Tashbetz) practiced medicine in Palma before fleeing, in the wake of the 1391 persecutions, to Algiers, where he became a leading halachic authority of North African Jewry.

See other sages who lived in Palma de Mallorca→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Tashbatz’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

In the same tradition

Rivash

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Tashbatz’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(2)

Related figuresRanRabbeinu YonahYitzchak CanpantonSuggested by shared subject matter, not a documented teaching relationship.