Arbaa Tourim

The Arbaa Tourim ( “4 pillars” ) or more commonly called “ the Turn ”, is a collection of Jewish laws, written by the rabbi Yaakov Ben Asher (1270-1340), approximately a year after the Mishneh Torah of Moïse Maïmonide. It was used as a basis for the Choulhan Aroukh, which borrowed in particular its structure in four sections:

  1. Orah Haïm : the daily behavior of the man - prayers, Tsitsit, Tefillin be, Chabbat and Fêtes
  2. Yoré Déa : Laws of the food interdicts, (ritual slaughter, food laws, periods of impurity of the woman, ablutions, wishes, conversion S, Sefer Torah, etc)
  3. Even HaEzer : Laws of the Family. Laws of the marriage and the divorce.
  4. Hoshen Mishpat : Legal code. Laws on finance. Too bad. Laws of the rabbinical courts.

Arbaa Tourim gives only the valid laws at the time (does not give to the student the laws applicable to the time of the Temple of Jerusalem). The laws are presented in the source language from which they were drawn, and in fact there is no single format. The authors are quoted by their names. In several books of the Rambam, there are also the divergences of opinions of those which decided laws. The Rabbi Yaakov Ben Asher was one of those which determined the Halakhot. The book in short describes the result of the deliberations of Wise of France, Europe of the East and Spain.

Principal commentators of the Turn

  • Beit Yossef - Rav Yossef Karo (author of the Choulhan Aroukh)
  • Darkei Moshé - Rabbi Moshé Isserles (the Rema , author of the HaMappa on Choulhan Aroukh)
  • Beit Hadash (Bah) - Rabbi Yoël Sirkis
  • Drisha and Prisha - Rabbi Yeoshoua Falk HaCohen

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