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Shulchan Aruch, Yosef Karo (1565)

Laying down the Jewish law

by
Batya Ungar-Sargon
September 17, 2013

Penned by Rabbi Yosef Karo in Safed in the 1500s during Ottoman rule, the Shulchan Aruch is the ultimate religious legal code of the Jews. Though the Shulchan Aruch represents the Sephardic tradition, Rabbi Moses Isserles’ Asheknazic legal annotations have been printed in Rashi script alongside Karo’s text in the standard edition, and the Shulchan Aruch is the book always referenced, if not always followed, by most Orthodox rabbis when questions of Jewish law come up. You know the expression “You don’t pasken a Shaila from the Gemara”? We suspect Karo’s publicist had something to do with it.

Batya Ungar-Sargon is a freelance writer who lives in New York. Her Twitter feed is @bungarsargon.

Batya Ungar-Sargon is a freelance writer who lives in New York. Her Twitter feed is @bungarsargon.