Book contents
- The Codification of Jewish Law on the Cusp of Modernity
- The Codification of Jewish Law on the Cusp of Modernity
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and Rules of Style
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Joseph Caro and His Codification of Jewish Law
- 2 A Difficult Beginning
- 3 Rabbi Solomon Luria’s Legal Methodology
- 4 Rabbi Moses Isserles’s Responses
- 5 Codification and Legal Creativity
- Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Rabbi Moses Isserles’s Responses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2022
- The Codification of Jewish Law on the Cusp of Modernity
- The Codification of Jewish Law on the Cusp of Modernity
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and Rules of Style
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Joseph Caro and His Codification of Jewish Law
- 2 A Difficult Beginning
- 3 Rabbi Solomon Luria’s Legal Methodology
- 4 Rabbi Moses Isserles’s Responses
- 5 Codification and Legal Creativity
- Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Just as Joseph Caro’s Beyt Yosef did not go unnoticed by Solomon Luria, so too it and Caro’s Shulḥan `aruk evoked responses from Moses Isserles of Krakow. Isserles was the son of a wealthy communal leader, Israel, who built a synagogue for his son that stands to this day in the Kazimierz district of Krakow and is known as the Rema Synagogue.1 Isserles acknowledged that he received his position as rabbi of Krakow through family connections rather than on his own merits when “I was a youth [na`ar] and had yet to mature.”2 Over time Isserles grew into the office and attained international stature. Questions were addressed to him from rabbis and rabbinic courts in Poland, Lithuania, the Italian and German-speaking lands, and the Ottoman Empire where there were a number of Ashkenazic communities in the sixteenth century.3 Individuals from other jurisdictions came to Krakow seeking his opinion, thinking that it would sway rabbinic courts back home.4
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- The Codification of Jewish Law on the Cusp of Modernity , pp. 193 - 255Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022