His uncle and teacher was Menachem ben Helbo, whom Ḳara often cites in his commentaries, these quotations being almost the only source of knowledge concerning Menahem's exegesis. Ḳara frequented Rashi's house; it is even possible that he was Rashi's pupil, though this is denied by A. Epstein. They each quote from the other. In Rashi's house Ḳara also made the acquaintance of Samuel ben Meïr. They likewise quote each other. Isaac Ḳara, of whose exegesis specimens are given in Monatsschrift, 1864, p. 219; 1865, p. 384, may be Joseph's son. The surname "Ḳara" is usually taken to be a professional name, meaning "reader" or "interpreter of the Bible". Adolf Jellinek points out, however, that "Ḳara," as contrasted with "Darshan," means the representative of the "Peshaṭ". He was among the first French exegetes and the forerunner of the French school of exegetes later to come. They were all to some extent influenced by his works, most notably among them, the Rashbam. Rashi too was influenced by R. Yosef who repeated his teacher's comments to him and incorporated several of them in his commentary.
Works
Ḳara was a prolific exegetical writer. When he copied Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch he added numerous glosses and remarks in order to supplement and revise it; and these glosses were inserted by the scribes in the text of Rashi. They have been collected. The original or independent Bible commentaries of Ḳara are:
According to Berliner, a commentary on Deuteronomy 1-4
Commentaries on the Prophetspublished in Miḳra'ot Gedolot,Lublin, 1897; extracts from these commentaries were published by Wolf; by Littmann, published by Hübsch
* Book of Ruth, published by Hübsch, l.c., and by A. Jellinek, l.c.
* Lamentations, published in Naples in 1486, and by Hübsch, Jellinek, and E. Ashkenazi, and by S. Buber in two different recensions.
* Book of Esther, published by Hübsch, Jellinek, and Berliner
It is quite possible that Ḳara wrote also commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah, but that the commentaries on these books as contained in MS. Saraval No. 27, and ascribed to Joseph Ḳara, are not genuine. Some comments of Ḳara on Chronicles must have existed, as is proved by the quotations in pseudo-Rashi to those books. According to Epstein, Ḳara wrote additionally
glosses to the pseudo-Rashi commentary on Genesis Rabbah, and
While in his glosses on the Pentateuch and in his commentaries on the Prophets Ḳara depends upon Rashi to the greatest extent, his explanations of the Hagiographa are more original. He quotes Menahem ben Saruḳ, Dunash ibn Labraṭ, Judah and Moses ha-Darshan, Ḳalir, Meïr Sheliaḥ Ẓibbur, Kalonymus, and others. In his commentary on Book of Job he frequently uses the writings of Shabbethai Donnolo, and gives very valuable extracts from the lost Baraita of Samuel with Donnolo's commentary. His grammatical standpoint is that of Rashi. Whole Hebrew sentences are sometimes translated into French. In his expressions he is not as terse as Rashi. He is bold enough to express the opinion that the Book of Samuel was not written by the prophet himself, but later. He does not go into grammatical or philological research, and cares more for the sense of the whole sentence than for a single word. He shows more common sense than depth, and though he does not altogetherhold aloof from aggadic interpretations, he takes a leading place among the exegetes of northern France, who in general preferred the rational exegesis.
