Joseph Ben Johanan

French rabbi of the fourteenth century. He was a native of Treves (, read by Carmoly "Troyes"), and seems to have been the first to adopt "Treves" as a family name. He is called also "the Great" ("ha-Gadol"), owing to his erudition. He emigrated to France in 1306, and in 1343 he was rabbi of Marseilles, where he was prominent in a decision concerning the marriage law (Isaac de Lattes, Responsa, ed. Vienna, p. 88). Isaac b. Sheshet (Responsa, Nos. 271-272) speaks of Joseph as "the ornament of the wise men, the crown of the ancients."

Joseph's wife, also, was very learned in the Talmud; and a decision by her has been preserved by Simeon b. Ẓemaḥ Duran (Responsa, iii., No. 78). In 1363, when as a widow she was living in Paris, where her son Mattithiah was rabbi, she was excused from wearing the Jewish badge ("Ordonnances des Bois de France," v. 498).

Bibliography:

  * Brüll, Jahrb. i. 90-91;
  * Carmoly, in Arch. Isr. xvii. 262;
  * Gross, Gallia Judaica, pp. 242, 381.



G. M. Sel.