Israel Ben-samuel Maghrebi

Israel ben-Samuel Maghrebi a Jewish writer of the Karaitic sect, flourished at the opening of the 14th century, at Kahira. He deserves our notice as the author of works on the Jewish laws and traditions, in which he advanced the peculiar theories of the Karaites. Thus, in his work הֲלָכוֹת שׁחַיטָה (written about 1306), he asserts that the animal, if killed according to law, and eaten according to prescription, develops itself in man to a higher state of being. The "shochet" (the person killing the animal) must, however be a believer of the migration of the souls of animals into the souls of men, else it can 'not only not take effect, but makes the meat unfit for food. But it is also as the interpreter of the matrimonial laws that he ranks high among the Karaites. See Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 7:322. (J.H.W.)