רבי יוסף קארו

Rabbi Yosef Karo, 'Maran,' is the man who gave the people of Israel their 'set table.' After generations of differing opinions and customs, he wrote the 'Shulchan Aruch,' in which the practical law was set down with such clarity that to this day, when a Jew asks 'what is the law,' the answer begins there. 'Maran' means 'our master,' for his rulings became the very voice of tradition.

But behind the dry decisor stood a burning kabbalist. Karo was among the greatest of Safed in the generation of the Ari, and his mystical work 'Maggid Meisharim' tells of an angel, the 'Maggid,' who would reveal himself and teach him secrets. The man who gave the people clear legal order lived in a world of holiness and deep spiritual yearning. His greatness lay in the union: a burning heart and a clear head.

And all this out of the exile from Spain. His family was expelled in 1492, wandered to Portugal, to Turkey, and finally to Safed in the Land of Israel, which in his day became the spiritual capital of the people. Out of a scattered and broken nation, Karo built a pillar to hold them all, Ashkenaz and Sepharad alike, and when the Rema added the custom of Ashkenaz, it became whole.

What do we learn from him? That order is not dryness, and that a burning heart and a clear head can dwell in one person. Karo teaches that when you give a people a 'set table,' a clear place to know their way, you perform an act of unity. Because of him, a Jew in Yemen and a Jew in Poland open the same book and find a home in it.