Almosnino, Moses Ben-baruch

Almosnino, Moses Ben-Baruch, a Jewish rabbi, was born about 1500. He was the son of a Spanish family which was driven from the peninsula by the decree of 1492 and settled at Salonica. He received an excellent education in almost all branches of science and literature, and was one of the greatest pulpit' brators of his age. He died about 1580. Besides a number of astronomical works, he wrote, ידי משה (Salonica, 1572; Venice, 1597), a philosophical commentary on the five Megiloth: — פרקר משה (Salon. 1563), a commentary on the Pirke Aboth: — תפלה למשה (ibid. eod. and often), an apology for the Mosaic law and the Shema prayer: — ס8 מאמצ כח (Venice, 1588), a collection of twenty-eight discourses delivered on different occasions, edited by his son: — Regimiento de la Vida (Salonica, 1564, and often), an ethical hand-book: — משה פני, a commentary on the Pentateuch, in the Oppenheimeriana: — a commentary on Job (MS.). See Furst, Bibl. Jud. 1, 40; De' Rossi, Dizionario Storico (Germ. transl.), p. 39 sq.; Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden, 9:41, 403, 417 sq.; Frankel, Monatschrift, 1864, p. 29 sq. 57 sq.; Zunz, Zur Geschichte u. Literatur, p. 531. (B. P.)