Moses Isserles: Theologian, Mystic, and Shaper of the Ashkenazi Way

For centuries, the Shulhan Arukh, first published in 1565, has been the standard codification of Jewish law, accorded an authoritative status given to few texts in the post-talmudic period. Its author was the Spanish-born Rabbi Joseph Karo, and it therefore represents Sephardi traditions. Rabbi Moses Isserles (ca. 1530–1572), a younger contemporary of Karo, would remedy that problem with his definitive commentary on the Shulhan Arukh. As Tamar Marvin observes, the two works reflect similar historical circumstances: a wave of expulsions of Jews from Western and Central Europe, of which the 1492 expulsion from Spain was the largest.