Mishneh Torah with Commentary of Rabbi Yosef Kapach
Jerusalem · 1984
יק
Yosef Kapach
Yosef Kapach
1917 CE–2000 CE · Modern · Sana'a (Yemen)
Rabbi Yosef Kapach (1917-2000) was the towering 20th-century Yemenite scholar — grandson of R. Yihya Qafih (the Dor De'a leader) — who single-handedly produced critical Hebrew editions and translations of nearly every major Judeo-Arabic work of the medieval Sephardic-Yemenite tradition. His editions of Rambam's Pirush HaMishnayot, Moreh Nevuchim, Sefer HaMitzvot, and the Mishneh Torah (drawing on previously-unknown Yemenite manuscripts) revolutionized Maimonidean scholarship.
He also translated Saadia Gaon's HaEmunot veHaDeot, Rabbeinu Bachya's Chovot HaLevavot, and Yehuda HaLevi's Kuzari from the original Judeo-Arabic. A dayan on Israel's Supreme Rabbinical Court for over 40 years and the most cited modern authority on the original Baladi nusach, he received the Israel Prize for Torah Literature in 1969. His Halichot Teiman remains the standard codification of Yemenite custom.
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Stop 1 of 21917–1943Born
Sana'a (Yemen)צנעאYemen
What they did here
When his grandfather died he took up teaching and issuing rulings for Sana'a's Jewish community. Adversaries of R. Yihyah Qafih sought to use Yemen's orphan law to force his conversion; he escaped this through the ruler's help and by wedding a cousin, all the while keeping up his learning and his handiwork.
Sana'a (Yemen) in this era
San'a in the 20th century was the home of the largest Yemenite Jewish community — about 60,000 at its 1940s peak. R. Yihya Qafih and his disciples engaged in the modernist Dor De'a controversy with the Iqshim (kabbalistic-traditionalist) party led by R. Yihya al-Abyadh. The 1947-50 anti-Jewish riots in San'a and across Yemen, combined with the founding of Israel, precipitated Operation Magic Carpet (Kanfei Nesharim, 1949-1950): essentially the entire Yemenite Jewish community — over 49,000 people — was airlifted to Israel in 380 flights. R. Yosef Kapach (1917-2000) emerged in Israel as the foundational modern Yemenite voice, producing critical editions of Rambam's Judeo-Arabic works that revolutionized Maimonidean scholarship.
About Sana'a (Yemen)
Center of Yemenite Jewry; home of Yihya Qafih (the Wars of God).
In Sana'a (Yemen) at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Yosef Kapach’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Yihya Qafih, Zelig Reuven Bangis, Imrei Emes, Isser Zalman Meltzer, Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky, Yechiel Michel Tukatchinsky, Yisrael Zev Mintzberg, Tzvi Pesach Frank, Yitzchak Isaac Sher, Martin Buber, Jacob Nachum Epstein, Mishpetei Uziel, Aharon Rokeach, Dov Berish Weidenfeld, Zalman Sorotzkin, Yaakov Moshe Charlap, Yechezkel Levenstein, Aryeh Levin
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Yosef Kapach’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.