Shulkhan Arukh

The Shulkhan Arukh (Hebrew: "Prepared Table"), by Rabbi Yosef Karo is considered the most authoritative compilation of Jewish law since the Talmud. With its commentaries, it is the main authoratitive source of halakha (Jewish law and custom) and often referred to as the Code of Jewish Law.

Shulkhan Arukh

Karo wrote the Shulkhan Arukh in his old age, for the benefit of those who did not possess the education necessary to understand the Beth Yosef. The arrangement of this work is the same as that adopted by Jacob ben Asher in his Arba'ah Turim, but more concise; nor are any authorities given. This book, which for centuries was, and essentially still is, "the code" of rabbinical Judaism for all ritual and legal questions that obtained after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, has a remarkable history. The author himself had no very high opinion of the work, remarking that he had written it chiefly for "young students" (Shulkhan Arukh, Introduction). He never refers to it in his responsa, but always to the Beth Yosef. The Shulkhan Arukh achieved its reputation and popularity not only against the wishes of the author, but, curiously enough, through the very scholars who attacked it.

Related Topics:
Arba'ah Turim - Judaism - Temple in Jerusalem - Responsa

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The history of the Shulkhan Arukh is, in a way, identical with the history of rabbinical literature in Poland for a period of two centuries. Recognition or denial of Karo's authority lay entirely with the Polish Talmudists. German Jewish authorities had been forced to give way to Polish ones as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century; and in the last third of that century Judaism in eastern Europe had become so entirely absorbed in the new Kabbalistic school of Isaac Luria that the study of the Talmud was greatly neglected. Karo was opposed in eastern Europe only by his contemporaries, Yom-Tob Zahalon, who designated the Shulkhan Arukh as a book for "children and ignoramuses" (in his responsa, no. 67, beginning), and Jacob Castro, whose work Erekh ha-Shulkhan consists of critical glosses to the Shulkhan Arukh. Isserles and Solomon Luria were Karo's first important adversaries.

Related Topics:
Poland - Talmud - German - Europe - Kabbalistic - Isaac Luria

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