ABSTRACT
In his monumental work on Jewish law, Menachem Elon, in summing up R. Jacob b. Asher’s unique contribution to the history of codification, states the following:
Thus in this middle way, Jacob b. Asher found the desirable solution to the problem of codifying Jewish law: on the one hand, a categorical and prescriptive statement of the basic legal principle, without attribution of authority or citation of source, and, on the other hand, a presentation of the various opinions of the post-Talmudic authorities on the ramifications of the principle, and his conclusion as to how the law should be definitively declared.1
