A seemingly straightforward text that offered few justifications for its views, Shulḥan `aruk hardly appeared to be the staff and staple of jurists and serious students of the law. Joseph Caro himself was aware of the simple nature of his code. In his introduction to Shulḥan `aruk, Caro noted that he intended it to be a pedagogic tool for young students (talmidim qeṭanim) to learn the law and for the learned to review it.1 However, Shulḥan `aruk was a well anchored book of law. It was an outgrowth of Caro’s earlier work, the culmination of more than thirty years of research into Jewish law, his massive Beyt Yosef, literally, “house of Joseph,” a play on Caro’s first name and a biblical phrase (Gen. 43.18, 19, among others).