Cara (or Karah), Joseph

Cara (Or Karah), Joseph, son of Simeon Cara (q.v.), a celebrated Jewish commentator on the O.T., lived in the north of France toward the end of the eleventh century. Following the example of his uncle, Menachem ben-Chelbo, Joseph Cara abandoned the allegorical mode of interpretation of which his own father was a great defender, and devoted his talents to a simple and grammatical interpretation of the Biblical text. His commentaries, which extend over nearly the whole Old Testament, are distinguished for logical sequence and lucid diction, but of most of them fragments only have thus far been printed. His glosses upon Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch (פֵּרוּשׁ הִתּוֹרָה) have mostly been printed by Geiger (Zeitschr. 4:138-40 [Stuttg. 1839]; see his Beitrigqe sarjud. Lit. p. 17 [ib. 1847]), and some of them under the title לַקּוּטַים, in his נַטעֵי נִעֲמָנַים (Bresl. 1847), and Parshandatha (Leipzig, 1855). Fragments of his commentary on The Prophets (פֵּרוּשׁ נבַיאַים) are given by De Rossi in his Varies Lectiones (Parma, 1785); קֹבֶוֹ עִל יָד, by Leopold Dukes (Eslingen, 1846); נַטעֵי נִעֲמָנַים, by Geiger (Bresl. 1847). Fragments of the commentaries on Esther, Ruth, and Lamentations have been published by Dr. Adolph Jellinek (Leipzig, 1855). The commentary on Lamentations has been printed in Naples, 1847, and reprinted in the collection, דִּברֵי חֲכָמַים (Metz, 1849). The commentary on Job is reprinted in Frankel's Monatschrift far Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums (1856-58). His commentary on Hosea was published in Breslau, 1861. See First, Bibliotheca Judaica, 2:170; Kitto, Cyclop. 1:444.