I Don't Want Your Set Table The Shulchan Arukh

Tzemach David, A Chronicle by Rabbi David Solomon Ganz (1541-1613)

1440: A printing press for books was invented in Mainz by a Christian man named Johannes Gutenburg from Strassburg. This was in the first year of the pious emperor Friedrich, in 5200 which is 1440 according to the Christians. Praised be the One who gave humanity knowledge and taught people wisdom. Praised be the one who acted for our sake with heroic mercy and with great ingenuity in doing this for the benefit of all humanity. There is nothing like it, and no wisdom or device created since the creation of Adam has greater value, not only for Talmudic and Divine wisdom, and the other seven wisdoms, but also for other kinds of modern wisdom, crafts, building, woodworking, stonework and the like; and in addition to this, every day, the printing press reveals and publishes endless books about many helpful achievements and devices for every field of work.

Minchah Belulah, R. Avraham HaKohen Rappaport 2:203b

A fiery law for them (Deuteronomy 33:2)…This is also a hint about the great destruction which we saw throughout Italy, the burning of the Torah she’b’al Peh which happened in 1553 (5313). God’s hand was against us. The decree came from Rome that [the books] should be consumed by fire. In the city of Venice, woe to our eyes which saw on the 13^th and 14^th of MarCheshvan, 5313, an unending fire. So I made these days an annual fast day for crying and mourning, because this day was as difficult for us as the day when our Holy Temple was burnt.

Introduction to the Bet Yosef, Yosef Karo

During our exile, we wandered and many troubles happened to us. And because of our sins, we lost the wisdom of our sages (Isaiah 29:14) and the power of Torah and its students disintegrated. For the Torah did not become like two Torahs, but rather like an infinite number of Torahs because of the number of books which are available to "clarify its judgments and laws." And even though these books were intended to light up our darkness (i.e. our confusion), we still remains with great confusion because each [rabbi] writes his own book, repeating what others have written but sometimes contradicting what his fellow has written without citing his words. Sometimes, these legal writers state a law anonymously as if everyone agrees, but if you explore, you find that there are great scholars who disagree, which happens in uncountable cases...

Introduction to the Bet Yosef, Yosef Karo

I realized that I would have to decide halakhah and evaluate different arguments, because the goal is that we should all have one Torah and one law. If I had to judge between all of the different interpreters of the Talmud who each have different arguments and conclusions—how could anyone decide between them?!

So I decided that the three pillars of decided law upon which the house of Israel depends are the Rif [R. Yitzhak Alfasi; North Africa], the Rambam [Sepharad], and the Rosh [Asher ben Yechiel; Ashkenaz]. When two disagree with the third, I will decide like them, except when most rabbis and the widespread custom disagree with that opinion. …When none of the three address an issue, we will follow after the most famous sages who have written on this law.

This is the most correct path but it seems clear that it will cause problems. If, in a small number of places they have customarily followed a prohibition in a small number of matters, even though we have decided the opposite, they should maintain their custom, since they have already accepted upon themselves the words of the rabbi who prohibited. And it is forbidden for them to behave as if it is permitted to them.

Shulchan Arukh, Introduction, Yosef Karo

How do I come before God… who has allowed me to write a commentary on the Arba’ah Turim which I have called Bet Yosef, in which I included the laws of all of the legal decisors from the Talmud Bavli and Yerushalmi, the Tosefta, the Sifri, the Mekhilta, the commentaries, and responsa, making clear each and every law.

And I saw that it would be good to collect those laws with brief language, clearly and completely, so that the Torah of God would be perfect (Psalms 19:8) and fluent in the mouths of all of Israel. So when someone asks a student of the rabbis a question about a law, he won’t get confused, and he’ll be able to answer immediately, and it will be clear to him what the practical law is. He can divide this book into thirty sections, review one portion every day, and in a month, he will have reviewed it all.

And not only this, younger students will be able to think about this all the time and repeat its language by heart. And this will be good for basic lessons, all ordered in their mouths for practical halakhah, from the time they are very young. I have called the name of this book “Shulchan Arukh” (=A Set Table) because one who studies it will find in it all kinds of tasty things. And I promise that through God’s grace and through this book, the world will be filled with the knowledge of God, both young and old

R. Moshe Isserles, Introduction to Darkhei Moshe

It is known that the Rabbi, the Mechaber (compiler) of the Beit Yosef, by his nature followed after the great sages, and determined law according to the testimony of two or three wonderful geonim, that is, the Rif, the Rambam, and Rosh. In every place where two of them agreed. But to the other great rabbis of the Torah, he paid no attention…. Even though they are earlier scholars and not the most recent scholars, and he didn’t pay attention to what the earliest of those early ones yelled out, for the Rif stated at the end of Eruvin, ch. 2 (and they agreed with him) that one should determine law in all cases according to the most recent decisors and not the words of the earlier rabbis.

Vikuach Mayim Hayyim, Hayyim ben Betzalel (Friedberg 1712, 1a)

1a Just as someone only likes food that is prepared the way he likes it and doesn’t want to be a guest at his friend’s table, so a person may not like legal teachings other than the ones with which he agrees. How much the more so, if he doesn’t want to rely on the books of these recent authors and be dependent on their “set table” (Shulchan Arukh).

And that is why earlier scholars didn’t write codes of law about what is prohibited and what is permitted that would determine the custom and law for the public. This is why it is surprising that the great and pious scholar Rabbi Moshe Isserles wrote his code of law which he called Torat Hatat. He paid no attention to these things that I have written [about not publishing a code of law]….

Vikuach Mayim Hayyim, Hayyim ben Betzalel (Friedberg 1712, 6a)

Just as the Rav (R. Moshe Isserles) z"l had to make known the differences between the customs of our land and the customs of the East, so is there also a great need to make known the differences in custom between the Jews of Germany (Ashkenaz) and those of the land of Poland. For if the Rav did not want his customs to be annulled in the face of the customs of the Land of Israel, how much the more so should the Jews of Germany not have their customs annulled by the customs of the Land of Poland!... For the Torah is the heritage of the Ashkenazim from the time of the destruction [of the Temple].

Vikuach Mayim Hayyim, Hayyim ben Betzalel (Friedberg 1712, 4a-4b)

4a It is perfectly acceptable for a person to take notes and to collect new ideas which are found in the writings of earlier legal authorities and to organize those notes as a personal reminder … I did this for about 16 years …, but the students who were living in my house stole it from me and copied it in secret. When I found out, I angrily took the copy from them. I had only put it together for my personal use as a memory-aid, and certainly not that some other person should rely on it as authoritative.

Yam Shel Shlomo, Introduction to Hullin, R. Shlomo Luria

Recently, I bought a copy of R. Yosef Karo [commentary] on the Tur, [his Beit Yosef] and he notes some new ideas. He didn’t leave out anything that he could think of. But he has made compromises that were just gut decisions that were against the received tradition and common practice.

Students are following his rulings, and they don’t realize that many times, [Karo] is deciding against the rulings of the Tosafot and [our Ashkenazic customs], and they are making a big mistake, because they see it written, they say this is how “R. Karo says the law is.” It is wrong that they they just believe what is written in a book. If someone alive stands up and cries out that the law is not like this, even with absolute proof, they pay no attention.

Because of our many sins, “ordained rabbis” are many, but “people who learn” are few, and so they grasp at a book like this with all of its “new” interpretation, and this makes it seem that the lesser “rabbis” are the same as greater rabbis and that youths are like elders.

I have felt it necessary to go on at length at this in order to remove from the hearts of the students [of Torah] that they should not rely on his writings

Yoseph Karo, Beit Yosef, Introduction

If, in a small number of places they have customarily followed a prohibition in a small number of matters, even though we have decided the opposite, they should maintain their custom, since they have already accepted upon themselves the words of the rabbi who prohibited. And it is forbidden for them to behave as if it is permitted to them, as is taught in the chapter Makom SheNahagu (Pesachim 51a)