Commentary: On Genesis

Joseph ben Isaac Bekhor Shor was an exegete, Tosafist, and poet born in Orléans, in northern France. He was a student of Jacob ben Meir (Rabbenu Tam), and a written exchange between the two survives in the latter’s Book of the Upright (Sefer ha-yashar). Joseph composed a Hebrew commentary on the Torah and on the Psalms. His approach was generally focused on the peshat (plain meaning) of scripture, though less rigidly than other twelfth-century northern French figures. Joseph’s commentaries also contain significant anti-Christian polemics. His name appears in printed Tosafot on the Talmud, and he composed several piyyutim (liturgical poems) that address the calamities of his day.