(Rivash) Rabbi Yitzḥak ben Sheshet

Rabbi Yitzhak ben Sheshet Perfet (the Rivash) was born in Barcelona in 1326 and studied under the Ran. He served as rabbi in Zaragoza and then Valencia. In the anti-Jewish riots of 1391, which spread from Seville across Spain, thousands were killed and many more were forced to convert. The Rivash escaped and reached Algiers, where the local ruler appointed him chief rabbinic judge. He led the community, which now included a growing number of Spanish refugees, until his death in 1408.

His responsa, more than 500 of them, are among the most cited of the Rishonim. Rabbi Yosef Karo drew on them heavily in the Beit Yosef and the Shulchan Aruch, and they cover marriage, commerce, community government and the status of forced converts (anusim) who wished to return to Judaism. The Jews of Algiers venerated his tomb as that of "Rab Barfat" for centuries.