BULAT, JUDAH BEN JOSEPH

BULAT, JUDAH BEN JOSEPH (c. 1475–c. 1540), talmudist who settled in Turkey after the expulsion from Spain. The first mention of him is in 1510, when he published the second and corrected edition of the Halikhot Olam (Constantinople, 1510) of Yeshu'ah b. Joseph ha-Levi. To it he appended Mevo ha-Talmud, attributed to Samuel ha-Nagid. He served in Constantinople as a dayyan. Bulat was opposed to the practice of basing halakhic rulings on the codes without studying thoroughly the actual circumstances of the case. He tended to disregard stringencies not found in the Talmud. When the Constantinople rabbis decided that a certain bill of divorce was invalid, Bulat declared it valid even against the opinion of Elijah *Mizraḥi. Some of his published responsa testify to serious differences of opinion between him and contemporary scholars. His responsa appear among those of Elijah Mizraḥi (Constantinople, 1560), and in the responsa Oholei Tam of Tam ibn Yaḥya, which are included in Tummat Yesharim (Venice, 1622). Another halakhic work of Bulat is mentioned in the Yemin Moshe of Moses Ventura (Mantua, 1624). He also published Kelal Kaẓar (Constantinople, 1532; new ed. 1936), a methodology for the study of the Torah, halakhah, and exegesis. He also deals with the classification of the sciences, extending the accepted system to include Jewish studies.

bibliography:

Fuenn, Keneset, 391; Rosanes, Togarmah, 1 (1930²), 123–4; Judah ben Joseph Bulat, Kelal Kaẓar (1936), introduction by M. Rabinowitz; M. Margaliot, Sefer Hilkhot ha-Nagid (1962), 68–73; A. Yaari, Ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Kushta (1967), 86–88.