(Costaro). Erech Lechem [glosses to Shulchan Aruch].

CASTRO, YA’AKOV DE

Jonah ben Jacob Aschkenazi

Constantinople

1718

Vinograd, Const. 401.

R. Ya’akov de Castro (1525-1610) was the Chief Rabbi of Egypt. The Halachic rulings in the present work were followed by the entire Egyptian community, even when they contradicted the rulings of R. Yoseph Karo. Interestingly, many of the rulings in Castro’s work are similar to those of R. Moshe Isserles (ReM”A). Castro composed his work first, but there is almost no chance that ReM”A would have seen it while working on his Mapah. In his introduction to the work, Castro’s grandson Yitzhak justified the decision to publish Erech Lechem, as opposed to leaving the Egyptian community to continue using the Mapah. Castro explained that with the publication of Erech Lechem any Halachic disagreement should be viewed as two rabbis against one (Isserles and Castro vs Karo), thus swinging the balance in favor of the opinion of the former (see ff. 2a). Ya’akov de Castro was a descendant of Jews who fled Portugal during the time of the Inquisition, his family eventually came to settle in Egypt. A student of the illustrious Radbaz (R. David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra), he is considered the last Chief Rabbi of Egypt to hold sway over the entire community of Musta'arabi Jews in Egypt following the abolition of the office of Nagid.