Works
Rabbenu Asher’s best known work is his abstract of Talmudic law. This work specifies the final, practical halakha, leaving out the intermediate discussion and concisely stating the final decision. It omits areas of law limited to Eretz Yisrael (such as agricultural and sacrificial laws) as well as the aggadic portions of the Talmud. Asher’s son Jacob compiled a list of the decisions found in the work, under the title Piskei Ha-ROSH (decisions of the ROSH). Commentaries on his Halachot were written by a number of later Talmudists. In yeshivot, this work is studied as a regular part of the daily talmud study. It is not well known, but the work is actually not a commentary on the Talmud but is rather a commentary on the Rif, and always starts with the text of the Rif (see Shach quoted in Kellolei HoRif, Rabbeinu Osher, ViTur printed before the Rosh on Shabbos, Klal 2). Some however dispute this (see Sdei Chemed Klalei HaPoskim, Rosh)
This work resembles the Hilchot of the Rif (Rabbi Isaac Alfasi) - also an adumbration - but differs in quoting later authorities: Maimonides, the Tosafists and Alfasi himself. Rabbenu Asher's work superseded Alfasi's within a short time and has been printed with almost every edition of the Talmud since its publication. This work was so important in Jewish law that Yosef Karo included the ROSH together with Maimonides and Isaac Alfasi as one of the three major poskim (decisors) considered in determining the final ruling in his Shulkhan Arukh.
Rabbi Asher also wrote:
- Orchot Chaim, an essay on ethics, written for his sons. It begins with the comment, “Distance yourself from haughtiness, with the essence of distancing.” Orchot Chaim is today an important work of musar literature.
- A commentary on Zeraim (the first order of the Mishnah) - with the exception of Tractate Berachot.
- A commentary on Tohorot (the sixth order of the Mishnah).
- Tosafot-like glosses on several Talmudic topics.
- A volume of responsa; see History of Responsa: Fourteenth century.
- There is a volume of responsa entitled 'Besamim Rosh' which is falsely attributed to the Rosh. In fact it has been shown to be a forgery from the 18th century, and contains controversial decisions which contradict what the Rosh wrote in his (genuine) responsa. This collection was published by Saul Berlin, Tzvi Hirsch Levin's son. It was exposed as a forgery by Mordecai Benet (amongst others)
Read more about this topic: Asher Ben Jehiel
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“Men seem anxious to accomplish an orderly retreat through the centuries, earnestly rebuilding the works behind them, as they are battered down by the encroachments of time; but while they loiter, they and their works both fall prey to the arch enemy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Your hooves have stamped at the black margin of the wood,
Even where horrible green parrots call and swing.
My works are all stamped down into the sultry mud.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The mind, in short, works on the data it receives very much as a sculptor works on his block of stone. In a sense the statue stood there from eternity. But there were a thousand different ones beside it, and the sculptor alone is to thank for having extricated this one from the rest.”
—William James (1842–1910)