Editing Moses Isserles (section)

==Approach==
[[File:Remuh's maceva.JPG|thumb|The Rema's tombstone at the [[Remuh Cemetery]], Kraków]]
Isserles is perhaps best known for his halakhic works, chief among them his notes to the ''[[Shulchan Aruch]]'' by [[Yosef Karo]]. He is noted for his approach to customs (minhagim): "it should be remembered that R. Isserles did not regard the Jewish [[Minhag]] lightly. On the contrary, he too expressed reverence and respect for it, and whenever possible endeavored to uphold it and also to explain its origin. Only, unlike many great Talmudic scholars, he refused to follow it blindly. When convinced of the unsound basis of a Minhag, he was ready to repudiate it regardless of its acceptance by the people."<ref>Siev 1943, p. 77.</ref>

Furthermore: "The Talmud is, of course, the great reservoir to which R. Isserles turns as the first step in attempting to solve a problem. The question at hand is immediately referred to an identical or similar case in the Talmud. The second step is the weighing of the opinions of the ראשונים, i.e. [[Isaac Alfasi|Alfasi]] (רי”ף), [[Tosafist]]s, [[Nachmanides]], etc. expanding and explaining the text. The opinion of the majority is followed by R. Isserles and even Maimonides, whom he respected very highly, is disregarded if he was in the minority. After the Rishonim, R. Isserles proceeds to examine writings of אחרונים, i.e. [[The Mordechai|Mordechai]], [[Chaim Yechiel Ashri|Ashri]] and [[Arba'ah Turim|Tur]], and the latter is followed especially when the Tosafists agree with him. At this point, the Responsa of still later authorities are cited extensively in accordance with the well-established principle of הלכה כבתרא, paying due attention even to the opinions of contemporaries and to customs of Polish Jewry which the ב”י omitted. Thus, Isserles, in his responsa as well as in the ד”מ and his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, served as a supplement and offered his community the code of Law adjusted to its authorities, customs, and needs. He spread the “cloth” over the table prepared by his contemporary, the ב”י."<ref>Siev 1943, pp. 57–58.</ref>

Isserles, like [[Yosef Karo]] in the [[Shulchan Aruch]], often quotes Kabbalistic sources and opinions in his various works, and writes of his great joy upon finding that his ruling concurred with what he later found written in the "words of the [[Zohar]] which were given at [[Biblical Mount Sinai|Sinai]]...".<ref name=mishor15/>

Writing to a friend who had become a rabbi in Germany, Isserles expressed his preference for living in Poland over Germany: "You would be better off living with us in Poland on stale bread if need be, but safe".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kraushar|first=Alexandra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5JDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA242|date=1865|publisher=Druk Gazety Polskiéj|location=Warsaw|page=242|title=Historya żydów w Polsce|trans-title=History of the Jews in Poland|quote=Byłoby Ci lepiej życ u nas w Polsce choćby o suchym chlebie ale bezpiecznie." [You would be better off living with us in Poland on stale bread if need be, but safe.]}}</ref><ref name="Weinryb1973">{{cite book|author=Bernard Dov Weinryb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K2DgBdSCQnsC|title=The Jews of Poland: A Social and Economic History of the Jewish Community in Poland from 1100 to 1800|publisher=Jewish Publication Society|year=1973|isbn=978-0-8276-0016-4|page=166}}</ref>

Isserles was criticized by his contemporaries for studying philosophy, but defended himself by arguing that [[Aristotle]] had learned from [[Solomon]] and [[Socrates]] from [[Ahitophel]] and [[Assaf ha-Karki]], citing [[Meir Aldabi]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fuss |first=Abraham M. |date=1994 |title=The Study of Science and Philosophy Justified by Jewish Tradition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40914819 |journal=The Torah U-Madda Journal |volume=5 |pages=101–114 |jstor=40914819 |issn=1050-4745}}</ref>