Moses Alshekh was a rabbi, preacher, and biblical commentator in the Ottoman Empire. He was a student of Rabbi Joseph Karo in Adrianople and of Rabbi Joseph Ṭaitazak in Salonica, and after moving to Safed in the land of Israel, counted Rabbi Chaim Vital amongst his pupils. He served as head of two different yeshivas and, according to his own testimony, devoted most of his time to the study and teaching of halakhah. It is well known that he would only begin to compose his famous Shabbat sermons a few hours before the start of Shabbat. Large crowds consistently attended these sermons, and his words were often repeated without attribution. To combat this and prevent others from committing the serious crime of Torah plagiarism, he published these sermons as a Torah commentary. He was one of the few scholars who received semikhah (rabbinic ordination) from his teacher, Rabbi Joseph Karo, after it had been renewed by Rabbi Jacob Berab. He was revered by his contemporaries and subsequent generations and is one of the very few sages to be referred to popularly as HaKadosh, "the holy."
Works on Sefaria
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