Book
Aruch HaShulchan ערוך השולחן
A code written afresh from the Talmud down to the ruling—and so read straight through, not only looked up.
Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, rabbi of Navahrudak, undertook what the Mishnah Berurah undertook, but from the other end. There, a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch; here, a fresh exposition: first the Talmudic source, then the dispute of the Rishonim, then the ruling, and all of it in connected prose.
The Aruch HaShulchan covers all four parts of the Shulchan Aruch, including laws that do not apply outside the Land of Israel—the only modern code to do so. In disputed places it often reckons with what communities actually do, and so it is prized especially where custom and the letter diverge.
On the timeline
5633 · 1873 CEThe Chafetz Chaim and the Mishnah Berurah5561 · 1801 CEThe law goes out of the yeshiva and into the house
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim, introduction — the plan: from source to ruling
- Aruch HaShulchan, Choshen Mishpat — the part other modern codes do not treat
Basis: documents and evidence.