Joseph Karo's Shulhan Arukh

. . . [T]he Shulkhan Arukh was published with Karo's rulings listed first, and Isserles's dissents and addenda included in italics.

The Shulkhan Arukh is divided into four volumes:

1. Orakh Hayyim -- laws of prayer and of holidays
   
2. Yoreh Deah -- diverse laws, including those governing charity (tzedaka), Torah study (see Talmud Torah), and the Jewish dietary laws (see Kosher)
   
3. Even ha-Ezer -- laws concerning Jewish marriage and divorce
   
4. Khoshen Mishpat -- Jewish civil law. . . .
   
   

The Shulkhan Arukh's exhaustive presentation of the details of Jewish law is suggested by the following, taken from the section listing the laws of Torah study, in which Karo gives directives to both teachers and pupils:

"The rabbi should not be angry with his pupils if they do not understand but he should repeat the matter over and over again until they grasp the proper depth of the law. The pupil should not say that he understands when he does not, but should ask over and over again. And if the rabbi is angry with him, he should say, 'Rabbi, it is the Torah and I want to know it, but my mind is inadequate'" [Yoreh Deah 246:10] (203-204).

KARO, JOSEPH (1488 - 1575)

. . . Born in Spain, he was a child among the deportees during the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. He lived in Lisbon for five years, and then settled in Turkey where he became head of a Talmudical academy, and began his life-work as commentator on and codifier of Rabbinic Law. In 1536 he settled in Safed, Palestine, where he was ordained by the great Talmud authority, Rabbi Jacob Berab, and where he founded his own Talmudical academy (Yeshivah) and wrote most of his outstanding works. His most popular work, the Shulhan Arukh, is a condensation and summary of his extensive work on Rabbinic Law, the Bet Yosef, which was originally planned as a commentary on Jacob ben Asher's code, the Arbaah Turim. . . (263).

Works Cited

• Telushkin, Joseph. Jewish Literacy (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991).
  
  
• Bridger, David, ed. The New Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: Behrman House, Inc., 1976).