- In 1492,
the mass expulsion of Jews in the Spanish inquisition
created waves of refugees throughout Europe
and the Middle East.
As Sephardic Jews from Spain
intermingled with Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe,
people became confused about which traditions
and rules to follow.
Two rabbis rose to settle the matter,
though these two men were from different traditions
and never even met, their conflict and collaboration
defined Judaism for half a millennium.
[uplifting music]
The Jewish oral tradition
represents the collected wisdom of rabbis
over thousands of years interpreting the Torah,
arguing and building consensus
on what it means to be Jewish.
These rules called "Halakha" cover everything
from prayers and festivals,
to dietary and marriage guidelines,
to procedures in court.
They define and shape the entirety of Jewish life
for millions of people.
But by the start of the 16th century,
the tradition was in trouble.
Disputes between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews,
arguments between rabbis about the correct opinions,
an explosion of new interpretations of the Torah,
and a rise in spiritualist philosophies like Kabbalah
meant that nobody could agree which opinions were right,
or which rules to follow.
In 1522, rabbi Yosef Karo decided to fix this.
Born in Spain four years before the expulsion of the Jews,
Karo eventually settled in Safed,
a holy city near the sea of Galilee.
A mystic and a scholar rabbi Karo
spent 20 years compiling 32 different Jewish authorities
into a catalog of Jewish law that he called the Beit Yosef.
When there was disagreement, as there frequently was,
he went with majority rule
between the three most prominent scholars.
The Rif, the Rosh and the Rambam.
Although the Beit Yosef
was a work of astonishing scholarship,
it was also very, very long.
So, rabbi Karo created a summary
that listed the decisions from the Beit Yosef
defining once and for all
what he called the Fixed Final Law.
It was like SparkNotes
for 2,000 years of Jewish oral tradition.
Rabbi Karo called it the Shulchan Aruch,
Hebrew for a set table.
While many Jewish scholars embraced the brilliance
and utility of the Shulchan Aruch,
a fierce backlash arose.
Prominent rabbis decried Karo for streamlining Jewish law,
and disregarding the disagreements
that were a central feature of Halakha.
Others protested that Karo's choice to go with majority rule
between two Sephardic rabbis and only one Ashkenazi rabbi,
strongly favored Sephardic interpretations.
A serious problem for Ashkenazi Jews
who were not willing to give up
hundreds of years of unique customs.
Luckily for Ashkenazi Jews,
rabbi Karo wasn't the only scholar working on
a unified code of Halakha.
Rabbi Moses Isserles was a brilliant scholar of Torah
who founded a yeshiva in Krakow, Poland.
He too recognize that the oral tradition
had become overly confusing.
While rabbi Karo was writing the Beit Yosef,
rabbi Isserles was compiling Ashkenazi Halakha
into a book titled the Darchei Moshe.
He was nearly finished with his masterpiece
when Karo Shulchan Aruch arrived in Poland.
The Shulchan Aruch created a dilemma for rabbi Israelites.
Publishing the Darchei Moshe
would reassert Ashkenazic tradition,
but exacerbate the chaos of contradictory rulings.
He faced a difficult choice,
accept rabbi Karo's conclusions
and lose centuries of Ashkenazi traditions,
or publish a competing book and risk a schism.
Rabbi Isserles instead came up with a third approach.
Recognizing that Jewish unity was essential,
Rabbi Isserles abandoned the Darchei Moshe
and instead used his knowledge
to create a series of additions to rabbi Karo's work.
Since Karo had called his texts the set table,
Isserles called his additions the Mapah, or "tablecloth".
For any laws in the Shulchan Aruch
that were different for Ashkenazis,
Isserles added glosses that explain the variances.
Thus, rabbi Isserles preserve the Ashkenazi tradition
without creating disunity.
Isserles then printed the Shulchan Aruch
with both Karo's original texts and his additions,
consolidating the two traditions into one book.
By abandoning his own book,
and instead combining his knowledge with rabbi Karo's,
rabbi Isserles guaranteed the continuation
of the Ashkenazi tradition
while lending his wisdom to the combined text.
This new Shulchan Aruch complete with its tablecloth,
quickly became the definitive text on Jewish law.
A text that united Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews.
It was studied in yeshivas around the world,
and later scholars added additional glosses
and commentaries placing their own dishes
on the table that rabbi Karo set.
It remains a guiding light,
a constitution of the Jewish people
nearly as important as the Torah or the Talmud.
The story of the Shulchan Aruch
represents the best of Jewish tradition.
It marks a dedication to scholarship
combined with an appreciation of practicality,
a unified text that still incorporates disagreement,
and a recognition that at the end of the day,
working together makes us all stronger.
- Up next.
Martin Luther sparks one of the largest revolutions
in the history of Christianity,
and alters the course of Judaism forever.
[uplifting music]