Commentators:R. Yosef Bekhor Shor/0

R. Yosef Bekhor Shor – Intellectual Profile

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R. Yosef Bekhor Shor

Name	R. Yosef Bekhor Shor ר' יוסף בכור שור
Dates	12th century
Location	France
Works	Torah and Tehillim commentaries, novellae on the Talmud, liturgical poems
Exegetical Characteristics
Influenced by	Rashbam, R. Tam
Impacted on	Sefer HaGan, Baalei HaTosafot, Ramban

Background

Life

• Name – 
  • Hebrew name – ר' יוסף בכור שור¹
  • _ name – 
• Dates – Middle to late 12th century²
• Location – Northern France³
• Education – 
• Occupation – No more than a skeletal history of Bekhor Shor’s life can be constructed from the sources that currently exist.⁴
• Family – 
• Teachers – 
• Contemporaries – 
• Students – 
• Time period – 
• World outlook – 

Works

• Biblical commentaries – 
• Rabbinics – 
  • Talmudic novellae – 
  • Halakhic codes – 
  • Responses to the works of others – 
  • Responsa – 
• Jewish thought – 
• Misattributed works – 

Torah Commentary

Characteristics

• Verse by verse / Topical – 
• Genre – 
• Structure – 
• Language – 
• Peshat and derash – 

Methods

• – 

Themes

• – 

Textual Issues

• Manuscripts – 
• Printings – 
• Textual layers – 

Sources

Significant Influences

• Earlier Sources – 
• Teachers – 
• Foils – 

Occasional Usage

Possible Relationship

Impact

Later exegetes

Supercommentaries

¹ The name is a reference to Devarim 33:17. This page will use the abbreviated form “Bekhor Shor”, which is how both the person and his commentary are often referred to in common parlance.
According to the consensus view, R. Yosef Bekhor Shor is the same person as R. Yosef of Orleans, and R. Yosef b. Yitzchak b. HaNadiv R. Yosef of Chinon, two other names cited in Tosafist literature. There are, however, some scholars who dispute this identification. See Urbach: Ba’alei HaTosafot: 132-134, Y. Nevo, רבי יוסף בכור שור פרשן הפשט: 1-2 (text adjacent to notes 10-19), and Y. Priel, “רבנו יוסף בכור שור: מעמדו בעולם הפרשנות ותהליך החשיפה המחודש של פירושו,” Oreshet 1 (2010, herafter: Priel, R. Yosef): 114-115. Here we will assume the consensus view.

² While there is no direct evidence as to when Bekhor Shor was born or died, we know that he wrote a question to R. Tam (d. 1171) as a young man, which would indicate his birth could not have been much later than 1150. G. Walter (Joseph Bechor Schorr, der letzte nordfranzösische bibelexeget (Breslau, 1890):7-8) estimates that Bekhor Shor was born circa 1140. Regarding when he wrote his commentaries, S.A. Poznanski (מבוא על חכמי צרפת מפרשי המקרא , (Warsaw, 1913): LVIII) notes that Bekhor Shor cites (in Bereshit 33:6) a work by R. Shelomoh ibn Parchon that is known to have been written in 1161. A. Geiger posits that this Italian work could not have spread to Northern France for several years, and thus sets the composition date of Bekhor Shor’s Torah commentary as no earlier than 1170 (see. A. Geiger, ספר פרשנדתא על חכמי צרפת מפרשי המקרא (Leipzig, 1856): 41). Similarly, M. Idel (“"פירוש מזמור יט לר' יוסף בכור שור, Alei Sefer 9 (1981): 64) argues that Bekhor Shor’s commentary to Tehillim was influenced by Chovot HaLevavot, and thus could not have been written before 1161, when that work was first translated into Hebrew.

³ More specifically Orleans, assuming Bekhor Shor is R. Yosef of Orleans.

⁴ There exists a lone medieval report of a historical incident involving Bekhor Shor (see Urbach, Ba’alei HaTosafot: 135). In this account, Bekhor Shor is confronted by a devoted convert to Christianity, and he succeeds in refuting Christianity based on Yeshayahu 52:13 and immediately bringing about the apostate’s repentance.