Pirkei Moshe [commentary to the Ethics of the Fathers]

A commentary to the Mishnaic tractate Avoth. Moses ben Baruch Almosnino (c. 1515-c. 1580) was a Salonikan preacher, whose numerous publications demonstrate extensive knowledge of science, philosophy, history, and rhetoric. Almosnino’s halachic responsa appear in the collections of his contemporaries such as Samuel de Medina (MaHaRaSHDa”M), and Jacob di Boton. Besides Hebrew comentaries to the Five Scrolls (Yedei Moshe, 1582), the Pentateuch and prayerbook (Tefillah le-Moshe, 1563), Almosnino also authored works in Judeo-Spanish. See EJ, Vol. II, cols. 669-671. Almosnino historical moment of glory was when he led a successful delegation to Sultan Selim II to secure the rights and privileges of the Salonikan Jewish community. The printer, Joseph Ya’avetz, was the grandson of the famous Joseph Ya’avetz, known as “He’Chasid Ya’avetz” (the Pious Ya’avetz), author of several works. The latter blamed rationalist Jewish philosophy for weakening the religious fiber of Spanish Jewry and making them rife for conversion to Christianity at the time of the Spanish Expulsion. He contended that only those Jews whose purity of Faith had not been tainted by intellectual sophistry withstood the theological perils of the time.