Takkanah - Post-Mishnaic Ordinances

Post-Mishnaic Ordinances

The privilege of making new ordinances did not end with the completion of the Mishnah: enactments were promulgated also in the Amoraic, Saboraic, and Geonic periods of Jewish law, although their exact dates are no longer known. Post-mishnaic ordinances which belong in this category are as follows:

1. the dowry of a wife and the movables of orphans may be taken in payment of debt (comp. Mordecai onKet. 10; Maimonides, "Yad," Ishut, 15)
2. movables may be attached for the dowry of orphan girls (Ṭur Eben ha-'Ezer, 112, 113)
3. an oath is valid in cases involving real estate (Halakot Gedolot, xxii.
4. no oath may be taken on the Bible ("Sha'are ẓedeḳ," v. 4, § 22)
5. criminal cases may be tried in Babylon (ib. iv. 1, § 62)
6. the property of orphans may be taken for the marriage portion of the wife ("Ḥemdah Genuzah," p. 60a)
7. the debtor must take an oath if he is unable to pay (Ṭur Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, 61, 2)
8. the debtor must take an oath if he has obliged the creditor to do so (ib. 87)
9. a widow is obliged to take an oath only in case the property bequeathed to her by her husband is insufficient to discharge her marriage contract ("Sha'are Ẓedeḳ," iv. 59)
10. in legal trials both the principals and the witnesses must remain seated (Maimonides, "Yad," Sanhedrin, xxi. 5)
11. Wine made by Muslims is not "issur" (responsa, "Ge'onim Ḳadmonim," xlvi.)
12. the priest to be the first one called up to the reading of the Law, he preceding even the nasi (Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 135)
13. permission to trade with Gentiles on their holy days (Ṭur Yoreh De'ah, 149)
14. the fast-day on the Thirteenth of Adar (Abudarham, ed. Prague, p. 78d)
15. an apostate may draw up a bill of divorce ("Ḥemdah Genuzah," li., lxxxvi.)
16. if a Samaritan betroths a Jewess, she must have a bill of divorce before any one else can marry her (Ṭur Eben ha-'Ezer, 44)
17. the passage Ex. xxxii. 11-14 must be read on fast-days ("Ḥemdah Genuzah," iv.; Masseket Soferim xvii.; Meg. 31b; Tosef., Ber. xix.)
18. the interruption of the first and last three benedictions of the "Tefillah" by the supplications ("Ḥemdah Genuzah," cxii.; "Halakot Gedolot," p. 9a)
19. the recitation of the morning benediction in the synagogue (Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 46)
20. the recitation of the prayer "Ahabah Rabbah" in the morning and of "Ahabat 'Olam" in the evening ("Ḥemdah Genuzah," cxxv.)
21. the recitation of the Biblical passage "Praised be the Lord in eternity, Amen and Amen" (Ps. xli. 13) in the daily evening prayer before the "Tefillah" (Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 236)
22. the insertion of the passage I Chron. xxix. 10-13 in the morning prayer (ib. 51)
23. the recitation of the "Shema'" in the "Ḳedushshah" (Abudarham, p. 53c)
24. introduction of the prayer beginning with the words in the "Kedushshah" of the musaf, and the prayers beginning with the words and in the "Ḳedushshah" of the Shaḥarit Tefillah of Sabbath (Tur Orah hayyim, 221)
25. the recitation of Ps. cxix. 142 at the Minḥah prayer on the Sabbath, in memory of the death of Moses (ib. 292)
26. the benediction for the bridal night (Abudarham, p. 115a)
27. "Parashat ha-Musafim" (Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 283).