Yad Malachi יד מלאכי
A compendium of rules: how the Talmud is read, where the codifiers differ, and by what rules a decision is reached. Livorno, 1767.
The book does not decide questions—it explains by what rules they are decided. Three parts. The first: the terms and turns of the Talmud in alphabetical order—what a given mode of argument means, how a given formula is to be read. The second: the codifiers in order—how each works, what each follows, where each differs. The third: the rules of ruling, again alphabetically.
It is a book about a craft rather than about the law, and that is why it is still in use: those disputing a particular halakhah turn to Yad Malachi for the rule of the dispute.
It was written by Rabbi Malachi ben Jacob ha-Kohen, the disciple and successor of Rabbi Joseph Ergas at Livorno. A quarter of a century earlier he had published his teacher's responsa, Divrei Yosef.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Yad Malachi, Livorno 1767 — the book itself: three parts — Talmud, codifiers, rules of ruling
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, "Malachi ben Jacob ha-Kohen" — the make-up of the three parts and the year of first printing
Basis: documents and evidence.