person · P0240 · rishonim
Yaakov ben Asher (the Tur) רבי יעקב בן אשר
Son and student of the Rosh, with whom he moved from Germany to Toledo. His Arba'ah Turim reorganized all practical halakha into four divisions — Orach Chaim, Yoreh De'ah, Even HaEzer, Choshen Mishpat — a structure so definitive that the Beit Yosef and Shulchan Aruch were built directly upon it, and codes follow it to this day.
Who
- Hebrew
- רבי יעקב בן אשר
- Also known as
- Baal HaTurim
- Era
- rishonim
- Received the mesorah from
- The Rosh
- Parents
- The Rosh
When
- Traditional
- c. 5029–5103 AM
- Civil (computed)
- 5029–5103 AM · 1269–1343 CE
- Academic
- c. 1269–1343 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈74 years
- Precision
- approximate
Where
- Places
- Toledo
How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| He received from his father the Rosh, whose rulings he cites on nearly every page as "my father, my master" (א"א ז"ל) — the Tur is in large measure the Rosh's halakha arranged for use. | tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| The Arba'ah Turim's opening — Yehudah ben Teima's "be bold as a leopard... to do the will of your Father in heaven" — sets the code's program of waking to divine service; its four-part structure became the fixed skeleton of subsequent halakhic codification. | rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| Son of Asher ben Yechiel; born at Cologne c. 1269 and emigrated with his father's household to Castile in the first decade of the fourteenth century. | rabbinic tradition | ★★★★☆ |
|
| Lived in straitened circumstances at Toledo and did not hold his father's communal office.
Frequently repeated; the research pass found no primary source and have kept confidence low deliberately.
|
tradition | ★★☆☆☆ |
|
| Also wrote a full Torah commentary; the short gematria-and-remez notes printed in many Chumashim under the name 'Baal HaTurim' are an abridgement of its introductory material, not the commentary itself.
A common misattribution worth recording as a bibliographic fact.
|
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ |
|
| Died c. 1340–1343 CE.
Date and place both uncertain; see open questions.
|
tradition | ★★☆☆☆ |
|