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Shulchan Aruch

This article is about the work by Rabbi Yosef Karo. For the work by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, see Shulchan Aruch HaRav. For the work by Lithuanian rabbi and posek Yechiel Michel Epstein, see Aruch HaShulchan.
Shulchan Aruch
AuthorJoseph Karo
LanguageHebrew
SubjectHalakha
Publication date
1565 (Venice)
Publication placeOttoman Syria
Preceded byBeit Yosef 

The Shulchan Aruch (Hebrew: שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך [ʃulˈħan ʕaˈrux], literally: "Set Table"),[1] sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed, Ottoman Syria (today in Israel) by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later.[2] 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 mappah (literally: the "tablecloth") to the Shulchan Aruch's "Set Table". Almost all published editions of the Shulchan Aruch include this gloss, and the term "Shulchan Aruch" has come to denote both Karo's work as well as Isserles', with Karo usually referred to as "the Mekhaber" (Hebrew: הַמְחַבֵּר, "author") and Isserles as "the Rema" (an acronym of Moshe Isserles).

Due to the increased availability of the printing press, the 16th century was an era of legal codification in Poland, the Ottoman Empire and other countries. Previously unwritten laws and customs were being compiled and recorded; the Shulchan Aruch was one of these. In the century after it was published by Karo (whose vision was a unified Judaism under the Sephardic traditions) it became the code of law for Ashkenazim, together with the later commentaries of Moses Isserles and the 17th century Polish rabbis.[3]

  1. ^ Also spelt Shulhan Aruch; Shulhan Arukh.
  2. ^ Codex Judaica, Mattis Kantor 2005
  3. ^ Davis, Joseph (October 2002). "The Reception of the Shulhan 'Arukh and the Formation of Ashkenazic Jewish Identity". AJS Review. 26 (2): 251–276. doi:10.1017/S0364009402000065. S2CID 162634994.

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