Taz: Rabbi David Halevi - Tapa dura

Rabbi David Halevi (1586-1667), more popularly known as the TAZ, was a renowned halakhic authority who authored the Turei Zahab, a series of commentaries on the four parts of the Shulhan Arukh. His legal decisions exerted great influence upon succeeding generations of scholars and continue to be studied today by serious students of Jewish law TAZ lived during a turbulent era of anti-Jewish pogroms and persecutions from without and messianic pretentions from within. His own children were victims of these pogroms and apparently believers in the self-proclaimed messiah, Shabbetai Zevi. Rabbi David's writings vividly reflect the economic, social, and psychological upheaval of his times. The author presents for the first time a scholarly portrait of the life and works of this authoritative scholar as mirrored against the turbulence of his era.