David HaLevi Segal

Also: Baʿal Ture Zahav · DAVID B. SAMUEL HALEVI · David Ben-Samuel, hal-Lewi · David ben Samuel · David ben Samuel Levi · David ben Samuel ha-Levi · David ben Samuel, ha-Levi · David ben Shemuʾel

(Taz; 1586–1667), rabbi, author, and head of yeshiva. The life of David ben Shemu’el ha-Levi, better known as Taz (after the initial letters of his Ture zahav [Rows of Gold], commentary upon the Shulḥan ‘arukh), spanned the peaceful zenith as well as the violent decline of seventeenth-century Polish Jewry. He was witness to both the bloody uprising of Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi and the messianic aspirations of Shabetai Tsevi. In Taz’s lifetime the Shulḥan ‘arukh achieved recognition as the authoritative code of Jewish law. His renowned and oft-reprinted commentary on that work remains his principal