AMARILLO, SOLOMON BEN JOSEPH

AMARILLO, SOLOMON BEN JOSEPH (1645–1721), Salonikan halakhic authority and preacher, father of Aaron and ?ayyim *Amarillo. While still a youth, he wrote responsa, and in 1666, he began to preach in various Salonikan congregations. On the death of his teacher, Isaac b. Menahem ibn ?abib (before 1685), Amarillo was appointed to replace him until Ibn ?abib's son became old enough to assume the position. Amarillo was an outstanding halakhist. Communities from all parts of Turkey turned to him with their problems. In 1691, following the death of Aaron ha-Cohen *Pera?yah, he was appointed one of the three chief rabbis of Salonika. In 1716 his bet ha-midrash was in the old Sicilian synagogue. He was the author of Penei Shelomo (Salonika, 1717), sermons, mainly eulogies, to which are appended notes on the Pentateuch, and Kerem Shelomo (Salonika, 1719), responsa. Some of his responsa under the title Olelot ha-Kerem were published by his son, ?ayyim Moses, at the end of the Torat ?ayyim, pt. 3 (Salonika, 1722) of ?ayyim Shabbetai and also at the end of the responsa Devar Moshe, pt. 2 (Salonika, 1743) of his son ?ayyim Moses. In the introduction to Kerem Shelomo, his son ?ayyim Moses refers to his father's novellae on the ?oshen Mishpat.

bibliography:

D.A. Pipano, Shalshelet Rabbanei Saloniki ve-Rabbanei Sofia (1925), 6–7a; Rosanes, Togarmah, 4 (1935), 220–3; I.S. Emmanuel, Ma??evot Saloniki, 2 (1968), nos. 1218, 1499, 1593.