The Tur: Between the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch

00:22 We have discussed in previous lecture the printing of the Rambam over the years starting in Reish Mem, 14 AD, until Shin Lamed Heh Dalet, 1574. Parallel to this printing of the Rambam, they've also printed so many times the Arvot Turim written by Rabbi Yaakov, the son of Rabbi Osher the Rosh. He was about 150 years after the Rambam and he gathered not only the Rambam's sokim but also other opinions of other peskim in the next 150 years and then he came up with his decision what is the psak in every halacha. He divided it to four parts which is called Arvot Turim. It was also published in the year of Reish Mem in 14 AD in Wadi Al-Hajara in Spain. As we know and we already discussed several years later, the Jewish nation was expelled of Spain and their Seforim taken away. We have one page of that edition taken out from the binding of Seforim that was published in that era a little later. After the expulsion of Jews from Spain, Jewish people were still living in Portugal. Adjacent to Spain, they had opened there a print house and printed the Tur again. We have several pages of that print. It was published in Reish Nun Heh in 1495. That didn't hold for a long time because two years later in Reish Nun Zayin in the year of 1497, they expelled Jews from Portugal too. Some of the Yidden that was expelled from Spain and Portugal settled in Turkey in Constantinople, Kushte. They opened

03:41 their print house too and they've published their Turim again. We have several pages of that edition too. Some people, part of those that was expelled from Spain and Portugal settled in Morocco, mainly in Fez. They opened their print house too. They have printed the Turim there too. We have several pages of that edition too. That was published in Reish Peh 1520. Some people of those that were expelled of Spain and Portugal settled in Poland, mainly in Krakow. They opened their print house too. They published their Turim too. We have several pages of that Turim also. That was published in Reish Tzadik Tes in 1539. One year later in the year of Shin, the year of 1540, they opened a print house in Germany too, in Augsburg and they printed the Turim again and that was a special edition because it was proofread and added some comments, a commentary on the Tur, a short one by Rabbi Avrohom of Prague. We have that Turim too. But the main edition of the Turim was published in the year of Shin Yud in Venice. It was the Rabbi Yosef Carol that wrote a commentary on the Turim called "Bet Yosef." Wasn't only a commentary. Yes, he is explaining each, each paragraph of the Turim and explaining, bringing the sources for each part of the Turim. But then he's bringing from many other poskim that lived between the period of Turim and between the period of the Beit Yosef, or even some sefarim that was written before the period

06:56 of the Turim. Everything he includes in the Beit Yosef, the commentary on the Turim. According to that, he built later the whole Shulchan Aruch with the final psak halacha gathered from the Turim and from the Rambam and from the Rif that we've discussed in a previous lecture, and from many others sefarim. He lived in Safed in Israel, but he sent it to print in Venice because there was a large print house for printing Hebrew books. We already discussed that there in that year of Shin Yud, in nine- in four- 1550, there was two printer houses in Venice by Bragadina and by Yushitinyan. He sent his Pirush of Beit Yosef to the Yushitinyan print house who printed the Turim with the Pirush of Beit Yosef. Since then until today, all the prints of the Turim are printed together with the Pirush of the Beit Yosef on the margin. Yes, there were added in later years other commentaries too, like the Bach, the Pri Chadash, and the Achi Meir, and the Gaon of Rosh Hal, as we will discuss, Im Yirtze Hashem, in the next lecture.