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Shulchan Aruch
The Shulchan Aruch (Hebrew: שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך, romanized: šulḥān ʿaruḵ, lit. 'Set Table' [ʃulˈħɔn ʕaˈruχ]), often called "the Code of Jewish Law", is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Rabbinic Judaism. It was authored in the city of Safed (modern-day Tzfat, Israel) by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later. Together with its commentaries, it is the most widely accepted compilation of halakha or Jewish law ever written.
The halachic rulings in the Shulchan Aruch generally follow Sephardic law and customs, whereas Ashkenazi Jews generally follow the halachic rulings of Moses Isserles, whose glosses to the Shulchan Aruch note where the Sephardic and Ashkenazi customs differ. These glosses are widely referred to as the mappā "tablecloth" to the "Set Table". Almost all published editions of the Shulchan Aruch include this gloss, and the term has come to denote both Karo's work as well as Isserles', with Karo usually referred to as "the Meḥabbēr" (הַמְחַבֵּר, "Author") and Isserles as "the Rema" (a Hebrew acronym of his name).
Due to the increased availability of the printing press, the 16th century was an era of legal codification in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ottoman Empire, and other countries. Previously unwritten laws and customs were being compiled and recorded; the Shulchan Aruch was one such compilation. In the century after it was published by Karo, whose vision was a unified Judaism under Sephardic traditions, it became the code of law for Ashkenazi Jews together with the later commentaries of Isserles and 17th century Polish rabbis.
The Shulchan Aruch and its forerunner, the Beit Yosef, follow the same structure as the Arba'ah Turim by Jacob ben Asher. There are four volumes, each subdivided into many chapters and paragraphs:
In the aside page, Karo's and Isserles' combined text is in the center of the page, top; since the 17th century, the Shulchan Aruch has been printed with Isserles' annotations in small Rashi print—and indicated by a preceding "הגה"—interspersed with Karo's text. Surrounding this are the primary commentators for the section:
On the margins are various other commentaries and cross references; see below. As commentaries on the work proliferated, more sophisticated printing styles became required, similar to those of the Talmud.[citation needed]Additionally, many recent publishers have reformatted this work with the intent to make it more accessible to the reader.
The Shulchan Aruch is largely based on an earlier work by Karo, titled Beit Yosef. Although the Shulchan Aruch is largely a codification of the rulings of the Beit Yosef, it includes various rulings that are not mentioned at all in the Beit Yosef, because after completing the Beit Yosef, Karo read opinions in books he hadn't seen before, which he then included in the Shulchan Aruch. In his famous methodological work Yad Malachi, Malachi ben Jacob HaKohen cites a later halachic authority (Shmuel Abuhab) who reports rumors that the Shulchan Aruch was a summary of Karo's earlier rulings in Beit Yosef which he then gave to certain of his students to edit and compile. He concludes that this would then account for those seemingly self-contradictory instances in the Shulchan Aruch.
Karo initially intended to rely on his judgment regarding differences of opinion between the various authorities, especially where he could support his view based on the Talmud. But he wrote that he abandoned this idea because: "Who has the courage to rear his head aloft among mountains, the heights of God?" Hence Karo adopted the halakhot of Isaac Alfasi, Maimonides, and Asher ben Jehiel as his standards, accepting as authoritative the opinion of two of the three, except in cases where most of the ancient authorities were against them or in cases where there was already an accepted custom contrary to his ruling. The net result of these last exceptions is that in several cases Karo rules in favour of the Catalan school of Nahmanides and Shlomo ibn Aderet, thus indirectly reflecting Ashkenazi opinions against the consensus of Alfasi and Maimonides. Karo often decides disputed cases without necessarily considering the age and importance of the authority in question, expressing his views simply. He follows Maimonides' example, as seen in Mishneh Torah, rather than that of Jacob ben Asher, who seldom decides between ancient authorities.
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Shulchan Aruch
The Shulchan Aruch (Hebrew: שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך, romanized: šulḥān ʿaruḵ, lit. 'Set Table' [ʃulˈħɔn ʕaˈruχ]), often called "the Code of Jewish Law", is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Rabbinic Judaism. It was authored in the city of Safed (modern-day Tzfat, Israel) by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later. Together with its commentaries, it is the most widely accepted compilation of halakha or Jewish law ever written.
The halachic rulings in the Shulchan Aruch generally follow Sephardic law and customs, whereas Ashkenazi Jews generally follow the halachic rulings of Moses Isserles, whose glosses to the Shulchan Aruch note where the Sephardic and Ashkenazi customs differ. These glosses are widely referred to as the mappā "tablecloth" to the "Set Table". Almost all published editions of the Shulchan Aruch include this gloss, and the term has come to denote both Karo's work as well as Isserles', with Karo usually referred to as "the Meḥabbēr" (הַמְחַבֵּר, "Author") and Isserles as "the Rema" (a Hebrew acronym of his name).
Due to the increased availability of the printing press, the 16th century was an era of legal codification in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ottoman Empire, and other countries. Previously unwritten laws and customs were being compiled and recorded; the Shulchan Aruch was one such compilation. In the century after it was published by Karo, whose vision was a unified Judaism under Sephardic traditions, it became the code of law for Ashkenazi Jews together with the later commentaries of Isserles and 17th century Polish rabbis.
The Shulchan Aruch and its forerunner, the Beit Yosef, follow the same structure as the Arba'ah Turim by Jacob ben Asher. There are four volumes, each subdivided into many chapters and paragraphs:
In the aside page, Karo's and Isserles' combined text is in the center of the page, top; since the 17th century, the Shulchan Aruch has been printed with Isserles' annotations in small Rashi print—and indicated by a preceding "הגה"—interspersed with Karo's text. Surrounding this are the primary commentators for the section:
On the margins are various other commentaries and cross references; see below. As commentaries on the work proliferated, more sophisticated printing styles became required, similar to those of the Talmud.[citation needed]Additionally, many recent publishers have reformatted this work with the intent to make it more accessible to the reader.
The Shulchan Aruch is largely based on an earlier work by Karo, titled Beit Yosef. Although the Shulchan Aruch is largely a codification of the rulings of the Beit Yosef, it includes various rulings that are not mentioned at all in the Beit Yosef, because after completing the Beit Yosef, Karo read opinions in books he hadn't seen before, which he then included in the Shulchan Aruch. In his famous methodological work Yad Malachi, Malachi ben Jacob HaKohen cites a later halachic authority (Shmuel Abuhab) who reports rumors that the Shulchan Aruch was a summary of Karo's earlier rulings in Beit Yosef which he then gave to certain of his students to edit and compile. He concludes that this would then account for those seemingly self-contradictory instances in the Shulchan Aruch.
Karo initially intended to rely on his judgment regarding differences of opinion between the various authorities, especially where he could support his view based on the Talmud. But he wrote that he abandoned this idea because: "Who has the courage to rear his head aloft among mountains, the heights of God?" Hence Karo adopted the halakhot of Isaac Alfasi, Maimonides, and Asher ben Jehiel as his standards, accepting as authoritative the opinion of two of the three, except in cases where most of the ancient authorities were against them or in cases where there was already an accepted custom contrary to his ruling. The net result of these last exceptions is that in several cases Karo rules in favour of the Catalan school of Nahmanides and Shlomo ibn Aderet, thus indirectly reflecting Ashkenazi opinions against the consensus of Alfasi and Maimonides. Karo often decides disputed cases without necessarily considering the age and importance of the authority in question, expressing his views simply. He follows Maimonides' example, as seen in Mishneh Torah, rather than that of Jacob ben Asher, who seldom decides between ancient authorities.