Rabbi Yitzchak Alfasi (the Rif) and the Sefer HaHalakhot
A scholar from Fez creates the 'little Talmud'—a digest keeping only what is settled in practice; the book becomes the foundation of all later halakhah.
Rabbi Yitzchak ben Yaakov HaKohen, called Alfasi after the city of Fez, was born in 4773 and taught for most of his life in North Africa. At seventy-five, denounced to the authorities, he fled to Spain and headed the yeshiva of Lucena, where his students included Rabbi Yosef ibn Migash, later the teacher of Maimonides' father.
His work is the Sefer HaHalakhot, popularly the 'little Talmud.' The Rif went through every tractate of practical relevance and kept only what governs action: he removed the aggadah, the laws of the Temple and purity, the rejected opinions, and decided disputed cases himself in a few words. The result was a book one could live by, yet it preserved the Gemara's own language and structure, so the student never lost contact with the source.
Maimonides said the Rif's code had displaced every halakhic work before it and that he agreed with it on almost everything. A literature grew around it—the Raavad's criticisms, the commentaries of the Ran and Rabbeinu Yonah, the Rosh's rulings. In printed editions of the Talmud the Rif appears after each tractate, and his is one of the three voices by which Rabbi Yosef Karo decided the law.
How we know
Sources
Rishonim
- Sefer HaHalakhot (Rif) — the code itself: the “little Talmud”, printed after every tractate
- Rambam, preface to his commentary on the Mishnah — the assessment: this code superseded the earlier books of halakhah
- Sefer HaKabbalah (Ibn Daud) — the Rif’s life and his flight from Fez to Spain
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Beit Yosef, preface — the Rif as one of the three pillars by which the law is decided
Basis: tradition.
People and places
Shmuel HaNagid · Rif—Rabbi Yitzchak Alfasi · Rambam · Rosh—Rabbeinu Asher · Halakha · Geonim · Rishonim · Fez · Kairouan · Ri Migash—Rabbi Yosef ibn Migash · Ritz Giat—Rabbi Yitzchak ibn Ghiyyat · Rabbeinu Chananel · The Ran · Rav Hai Gaon · Rav Nissim Gaon · Baal ha-Ittur—Rabbi Isaac ben Abba Mari · Baal ha-Maor—Rabbi Zerahiah ha-Levi · Rabbi Avraham ben Yitzchak of Narbonne—Sefer ha-Eshkol