Print and the Codification of Jewish Law (original) (raw)

Print and the Codification of Jewish Law

Abstract

For the online resource: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/rrorw/?context=rrorw This chapter discusses the printing of Jewish law codes in the early modern period. Jewish religious law, or halakha, has been transmitted in different textual formats for millennia. These texts have been organised in a variety of ways. Codes typically summarise large fields of law in a general manner while focusing on legal conclusions, and imply some degree of legal authority. There have been numerous projects seeking to organise halakhic knowledge in different forms throughout the ages, some through interpretation and explanation, others through organisation of various forms; summarising sources, ordering legal material, structuring them in an accessible scheme, and determining the final law. Some of these codifications faced intense criticism for implicitly or explicitly according themselves too high a degree of authority. Print-technology enhanced many of the code's authoritative characteristics, especially where order and structure were concerned. Moreover, the printing press rendered such codes easier to circulate to broader audiences. In the mid-sixteenth century, Shulḥan Arukh ('Set, or Ordered Table'), a code written by Yosef Karo, was printed. This was an updated, well-structured, general code of halakha, soon to be enhanced by Moshe Isserles' glosses, which made the code useful for an unprecedentedly wide geographical spectrum of Jewish observance. Although this code encountered serious opposition, it soon became one of the most popular halakhic codes of all time. It was created explicitly for print, and the work's printed state to some extent enhanced its codificatory authority.

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