Beschitzi, Moses

Beschitzi, Moses a great-grandson of Elias, a learned Jew, was born at Constantinople about 1554. Educated by his father, a learned rabbin, he studied Greek, Arabic, and Spanish, visited the principal synagogues of the East, and sustained victoriously several disputes against the rabbinites. Although not yet eighteen years of age at the time of his death in 1572, he left, according to the rabbin Mardochee, more than two hundred and forty- five works, which were mostly destroyed in the fire at Constantinople. Among those Which escaped we notice מטה אלהים, i.e. "the rod of God," in which he treats of the differences between the Karaites and rabbinites, tradition,. the Decalogue, and the six hundred and thirteen precepts. A fragment of this work was published in Dod Mordechai (Vienna, 1830). See De' Rossi, Dizionario Storico, s.v. (Germ. transl.), p. 58; Wolf, Notitia Caracorum, p. 63, 93 146; Id. Bibl. Hebr. 1 and 3, No. 237, 1519; Furst, Bibl. Jud. i, 114; Id. Gesch. des Karaerthums von 900 bis 1575 (Leipsic, 1865), p. 304-322; Lichtenberger, Encyclopedie des Sciences Religieuses, s.v.; Ben-Jacob, Thesaurus

Librorum Hebreorum (Wilna, 1880), i, No. 332; 2, No. 1032; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v. . (B. P.)