Isaac Alfasi

Called Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi also Rif (* 1013 in Al Qal'a at Constantine in Algeria, † 1103 in Lucena, Spain ) was a North African Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages. He is regarded as the most important halachic authority before Maimonides, and is the author of numerous responsa.

Life

After his birth Alfasi is sometimes also called "Ha- Kala'i ". After a period of study in Kairouan to Alfasi settled in Fez. Hence his name Alfasi or the Rif stirred abbreviation as an acronym of Rabbi Isaac Fasi. In Fez he lived until 1088, when he was denounced at the age of 75 years of enemies by the authorities and was forced to flee to Spain. After a few months in Córdoba he moved to the Andalusian town of Lucena, where he remained until his death. Shortly after his arrival in Lucena he took over in 1089 the chair of the local yeshiva. Among his many students there included, among other things, Judah ha -Levi. Before his death, Alfasi Joseph ibn Migasch designated as his successor, although his own son Jacob was an excellent scholar. His death was mourned by various poets, including by Moses ibn Ezra ( 1055-1135 ). This Alfasi praised as a man of incomparable wisdom and intense religious feeling life. Alfasi dedicated his life to the study of the Talmud and its general distribution.

Work and Aftermath

Hundreds of Alfasis responsa have been preserved. Many were written during his stay in Fes, most of them in Arabic. Stylistically his responsa are still close to those of the Babylonian Geonim. His fame rests on but his main work Sefer ha - Halachot. This is a summary of those parts of (especially Babylonian ) Talmud, who had not yet practical validity at the time of the author. Those tracts that had academic interest only, such as regulations on temple worship in Jerusalem, are not mentioned. Sefer ha - Halachot treated 24 of the 63 Talmud tractates, including the three "orders" Mo'ed, Nashim and Neziqin. Unlike many other scholars to Alfasi not only deals with halachischem, but also with aggadischem, ie legendenhaftem material from the Talmud is taught in moral behavior.

Jewish scholars of later generations have recorded their admiration for Alfasi and his book writing. Maimonides wrote: "The Book of Halachot our great rabbi, our Lehreres Isaac blessed memory, surpasses all these works [ the Geonim ] ... because it contains all the decisions and laws that we need today ... and with the exception of not more than ten. Halachot its decisions are final " Abraham ben David of Posquières who criticized the writings of Maimonides violently, wrote :" I would rely on the words of Alfasi, even if he should say that right is left "At the end of the Middle Ages. , as the study of the Talmud was banned in Italy, was expressly excluded them Alfasis work and stayed from the 16th to the 19th century one of the most important study works of Italian Jews.

To his critics and commentators are Talmudic scholars such as Nahmanides, Samuel ben Meir and Rabbeinu Tam, especially in Spain, but also in southern France, the book of Alfasi has been more thoroughly studied than the Talmud itself an anonymous comment from a Yemeni scholar of the 12th century the treatise Hullin (1960 issued ) testifies to the wide dissemination of his work.

Expenditure

• Sefer ha - halakhot. Ed. N. Sacks, Hilkhot Rab Alfas, 2 volumes, Jerusalem, 1969 ( first edition Konstantin Opel 1509 ).