The Codification of Jewish Law on the Cusp of Modernity

For more than four centuries, Jewish life has been based on a code of law written by Joseph Caro, his Shulḥan ‘aruk ['set table']. The work was an immediate best-seller because it presented the law in a clear and concise format. Caro's work, however, was methodologically problematic and was widely criticized in the first generations after its publication. In this volume, Edward Fram examines Caro's methods as well as those of two of his contemporaries, Moses Isserles and Solomon Luria. He h...