Taitazak or Taytazak, Joseph

Taitazak or Taytazak, Joseph a Spanish Jew, belonged to those 300,000 exiles who had to leave their country in 1492. With his father and brothers, he settled at Salonica, where he wrote פורת יוסŠ, "the fruitful bough of Joseph" (after Ge 49:22), a commentary on Ecclesiastes, in a homiletico-philosophicaI style (Venice, 1599): — קצת פרוש תלים, i.e. excerpts from his commentary on the Psalms, published with Penini's work, לשוֹן הזהב, "the tongues of gold" (ibid. 1599). The MS. of his complete commentary on the Psalms is to be found in the libraries of Paris and Oxford: — לחם סתרים, "the bread of sacredness," in allusion to Pr 9:17; a commentary on Daniel and the five Megilloth, viz. the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther (ibid. 1608). In its present form this work only contains fragments of Taitazak's commentaries on three books, and MSS. of the entire commentaries are still extant: — באור איוב, a commentary on Job, extant: — פסקים ושו ת, i.e. questions and decisions (ibid. 1622). See Furst, Bibl. Jud. 3, 412; De Rossi, Dizionario Storico, p. 314 (Germ. transl.); Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibl. Bodl. col. 1533; Kitto, Cyclop. s.v.; Finn, Sephardim, p. 413. (B. P.)