(lit. "set table"). The standard code of Jewish law (Halakhah), written by Joseph Caro of Safed, with supplementary annotations (Mappah) by Moses Isserles of Cracow. Caro's decision to compose the Shulḥan Arukh was influenced by the religio-cultural atmosphere of mid-16th century Safed. Here there was an ingathering of exiles from Spain, bringing together in one community the outstanding Sephardi scholars of the time together with the outstanding proponents of the esoteric teachings of the Kabbalah. A feeling of the dawn of the Messianic era pervaded the community, prompting the foremost halakhist there, Jacob Berab, to attempt to reconstitute the ancient Sanhedrin. Although the attempt failed, Caro was moved to produce a work that would serve, in lieu of a Sanhedrin, as a central authority for all Jewry.
Caro's Shulḥan Arukh is a concise digest of his Bet Yosef, a comprehensive commentary on the Arba'ah Turim of Jacob Ben Asher, and thus follows the latter's division of Jewish law into four major areas. He followed the example of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah in setting down the law in terse and decisive statements, but unlike Maimonides he did not include those laws in effect only when the Jerusalem Temple is in existence. In his introduction, Caro writes that he was guided primarily by the opinions of Isaac Alfasi, Maimonides, and Asher Ben Jehiel, but also took into consideration the opinions of later authorities. Caro could not fail to be influenced in some matters of ritual by the teachings of the Kabbalah. As a Sephardi, he ruled according to the practices sanctioned by Sephardi Jewry.
While Caro was composing his commentary to the Tur, Moses Isserles began to compose his own commentary, which he called Darké Moshe. When Caro's Bet Yosef reached Poland, Isserles was dismayed, seeing that the work had already been done, and in an exemplary fashion. However, on second thoughts, he decided to finish his commentary, since the Bet Yosef ignored many of the rulings and customs of the Ashkenazim. After Caro published his summary in the form of the Shulḥan Arukh, Isserles decided to add to it his annotations (haggahot) to set down the Ashkenazi practice. He called these notes Mappah, "a tablecloth" to cover Caro's "table." Together they constituted what soon became the authoritative code of Jewish practice, the Sephardim following the decisions of Caro and the Ashkenazim following the decisions of Isserles.
The differences between the two derive from the basic differences between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi approaches to halakhic decisions. Because of the system of Pilpul that dominated the Ashkenazi schools, there was much hesitation among them to make clearcut decisions where earlier authorities had expressed contradictory opinions, and the rule adopted was always to follow the more stringent opinion. While Caro permits the use of glass vessels for both meat and dairy dishes, provided they are rinsed thoroughly in between, Isserles rules that they may not be used indiscriminately and that if a glass vessel was used for non-kosher food, it cannot be cleansed for kosher use and must be discarded. Isserles gave force of law to many customs (minhagim), some of which added restrictions to the matter of marital relations during a woman's menstrual period and to the laws of Mourning.
The promulgation of the Shulḥan Arukh was greeted at first with the same objections raised against previous codes of Jewish law. The foremost scholars in Poland at the time argued that a digest of the halakhah without specifying the sources was insufficient for arriving at a proper decision.
Objections notwithstanding, the Shulḥan Arukh, with the Mappah, became firmly established as the standard text for every religious leader to consult before rendering a halakhic decision. Moreover, a cluster of commentaries increased with each new edition. A popular 19th-century abridgment was the Kitsur Shulḥan Arukh of Solomon Ganzfried of Hungary.
