Halakhot Gedolot הלכות גדולות

A step beyond Halakhot Pesukot: there the law is arranged by subject, here by its own structure, and the book covers the whole practical field at once. The Encyclopaedia Judaica says plainly against whom it was written: against the Karaites and others who rejected the Oral Law. A code one can produce is itself the answer to someone who says there is no tradition.

Hence the famous thing: it is here that the six hundred and thirteen commandments are first enumerated in a Jewish book—and enumerated by the gravity of the transgression. Maimonides in the Book of the Commandments tore that enumeration apart and laid down rules of his own; Nachmanides answered in its defence. The argument over what counts as a commandment begins here.

There are two recensions. The Babylonian—used by the scholars of France and Germany, printed at Venice in 1548, and closer to the original text. The Spanish—used in Spain, southern France and Italy, with later additions and references to geonim down to the ninth century; Hildesheimer published it from Vatican manuscripts in 1892.

The authorship was disputed: Rav Yehudai and Rav Hai were named; the accepted name is Rav Simeon Kayyara, ninth century, Sura. 'Kayyara' is not a place but a trade: a dealer in pitch or wax.