Shulchan Aruch


The Shulchan Aruch, 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 in what is now 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" and Isserles as "the Rema".
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.

Structure

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:
  1. Orach Chayim – laws of prayer and synagogue, Sabbath, holidays
  2. Yoreh De'ah – laws of kashrut; conversion to Judaism; mourning; laws pertaining to Israel; niddah
  3. Even Ha'ezer – laws of marriage, divorce and related issues
  4. Choshen Mishpat – laws of finance, financial responsibility, damages, and the rules of the beth din, as well as the laws of witnesses

    Page layout

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.Additionally, many recent publishers have reformatted this work with the intent to make it more accessible to the reader.

Beit Yosef

Its premise and style

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 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.

The standard authorities

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.
Several reasons led Karo to connect his work with the Tur instead of Maimonides.
  • The Tur, although not considered as great an authority as Maimonides' code, was much more widely known; the latter being recognized only among the Sephardic Jews, while the former enjoyed a high reputation among Ashkenazim and Sephardim, as well as the Italian Jews.
  • Karo intended to give not merely the results of his investigations, like Maimonides did, but also the investigations themselves. He wished not only to aid the officiating rabbi in the performance of his duties, but also to trace for the student the development of particular laws from the Talmud through later rabbinical literature.
  • Unlike the Tur, Maimonides' code encompasses all fields of halakha, including both those of present-day relevance and those dealing with past and future times. For Karo, whose interest lay in ruling on the practical issues, the Tur seemed a better choice.

    Moses Isserles

Moses Isserles began writing his commentary on the "Arba'ah Turim" and the "Darekhe Moshe" around the same time as Yosef Karo. Karo finished his work, "Bet Yosef," first, and it was presented to the Rema as a gift from one of his students. Upon receiving the gift, the Rema could not understand how he had spent so many years unaware of Karo's efforts. After looking through the Bet Yosef, the Rema realized that Karo had mainly relied upon Sephardic poskim.
In place of Karo's three standard authorities, Isserles cites "the later authorities" as criteria of opinion. While ben Jehiel on many occasions based his decision on these sources, Isserles gave them more prominence in developing practical legal rulings. By incorporating these other opinions, Isserles addressed some major criticisms regarding what many viewed as the arbitrary selection of the three authorities upon whose opinions Karo based his work.
After realizing this, Isserlies shortened the Darekhe Moshe to focus only on rulings which differ from Bet Yosef.
The halachic rulings in the Shulchan Aruch generally follow the Sephardic custom. Isserlies added his glosses and published them as a commentary on the "Shulchan Aruch", specifying whenever the Sephardic and Ashkenazic customs differed. These glosses are sometimes referred to as the "Tablecloth" to the "Set Table". Almost all published editions of the Shulchan Aruch include this gloss.
The importance of the minhag "prevailing local custom", is also a point of dispute between Karo and Isserles: while Karo held fast to original authorities and material reasons, Isserles considered the minhag as an object of great importance, and not to be omitted in a codex. This point led Isserles to write his glosses to the Shulchan Aruch, so that the minhagim of the Ashkenazim might be recognized and not set aside due to Karo's reputation.

Reception

Karo wrote the Shulchan Aruch in his old age, for the benefit of those who did not possess the education necessary to understand the Beit Yosef. The format of this work parallels that adopted by Jacob ben Asher in his Arba'ah Turim, but more concisely; without citing sources.
Shulchan Aruch has been "the code" of Rabbinical Judaism for all ritual and legal questions that arose after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem; see and re its contemporary function and status. The author himself had no very high opinion of the work, remarking that he had written it chiefly for "young students". He never refers to it in his responsa, but always to the Beit Yosef. The Shulchan Aruch achieved its reputation and popularity not only against the wishes of the author, but, perhaps, through the very scholars who criticized it.
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. Karo had already been opposed by several Sephardic contemporaries, such as Yom Tov Tzahalon, who designated the Shulchan Aruch as a book for "children and ignoramuses", and Jacob Castro, whose work Erekh ha-Shulchan consists of critical glosses to the Shulchan Aruch. Moses Isserles and Maharshal were Karo's first important adversaries in Eastern Europe. Further in response to those who wished to force the rulings of the Shulchan Aruch upon those communities following Rambam, Karo wrote:
Similarly, many later halachic authorities predicated the acceptance of the authority of the Shulchan Aruch on the lack of an existing and widely accepted custom to the contrary. Eventually though, the rulings of the Shulchan Aruch became the accepted standard not only in Europe and the diaspora, but even in the land of Israel where they had previously followed other authorities.