History of Israel and the Jewish People

Timeline›Ottoman Period

(Rama) Rabbi Moshe Isserles

1530 – 1572

Hebrew years: 5290–5332 (ה׳ר״צ–ה׳של״ב)

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The Rama, an imagined portrait on a postcard by Meir Kunstadt, early 1900s.
The Rama, an imagined portrait on a postcard by Meir Kunstadt, early 1900s. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The Rama was the leading Ashkenazi halakhic authority of his generation. His most famous achievement was writing glosses to Rabbi Yosef Karo’s Shulchan Aruch, adding Ashkenazi customs and rulings wherever they differed from Sephardic practice.

His work made the Shulchan Aruch usable as a shared legal code for both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews. Because of the Rama, later Jewish law could preserve the unity of a common legal structure while still maintaining the distinct customs of Ashkenazi communities.

Hebrew years
5290–5332 (ה׳ר״צ–ה׳של״ב)
Place
Kraków
Category
Sages, Scholars & Writers
Part of
Ottoman Period

At the same time

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Jewish Sages