Tag: works

  • Bereshit Rabbati

    Bereshit Rabbati

    בראשית רבתי – A late midrash on Sefer Bereshit that is attributed to the school of Moshe ha-Darshan of Narbonne in Provence, who was active during the first half of the 11th century. Bereshit Rabbati was known only by references to it until modernity, when a single Hebrew manuscript of it surfaced, which was published…

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  • Mikraot Gedolot

    Mikraot Gedolot

    The “Rabbinic Bible” or Tanach with multiple commentaries printed on the page alongside the text. Mikra (“scripture” or “verse”) refers in Hebrew to Kitvei Kodesh, writings that have sanctity, either as a whole (the way we use the terms Tanach or Bible) or in part (the way we use the terms pasuk or verse). Mikraot…

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  • Responsa

    Responsa

    Sheelot u-teshuvot – shu”t – שאלות ותשובות – שו”ת – A major genre of halachic literature recording questions (sheelot) and answers (teshuvot) that give pesak halakhah (practical halakhic rulings). There is a voluminous literature of responsa beginning in the period of the Geonim and continuing till today. Earlier collections of responsa may have details removed…

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  • Shulchan Aruch

    Shulchan Aruch

    שלחן ערוך (“The Set Table”) – A code of Jewish law, written in 1563 by R. Yosef Karo, a Sefardi rabbi, which became accepted as authoritative and normative with the addition of glosses incorporating Ashkenazi practice by Rema. Shulchan Aruch is actually a summary of Karo’s important, and much larger, halachic work, the Beit Yosef.…

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