Rabbi Yosef Taitatzak רבי יוסף טאיטאצאק

Rabbi Yosef Taitatzak was born to a family of Spanish exiles; there are no firm dates — 1487–1545 is the usual pair, but Scholem held that he was born earlier and died considerably before 1545.

From about 1520 he was the first halakhic authority of Salonica, the city that received more of the exiles after 1492 than any other. Rabbi Yosef Karo addressed him as "the light and holy one of Israel, the crown of the Diaspora."

The list of his students matters more than his own books: Isaac Adarbi, Samuel de Medina (Maharashdam), Eliezer Ashkenazi, Shlomo Alkabetz, Moshe Alshich. The last two went to Safed — and the Safed circle grew in good part out of the Salonica school. One sees here how the exile actually worked: first a community of refuge, then a community of learning, and out of that the movement to the Land of Israel.

Tradition says that he too had a maggid — a voice that spoke with him, as later with Rabbi Yosef Karo. This is reported by late sources, Yosef Sambari and the Chida; in his own lifetime it is not documented.