Page:Chapters on Jewish literature (IA chaptersonjewish00abra).pdf/238

234 (Arbäa Turim) of Jacob Asheri (1283–1340) was one of the main sources of Karo’s work. The “Four Rows.” again, owed everything to Jacob’s father, Asher, the son of Yechiel, who ungrated from Germany to Toledo at the very beginning of the fourteenth century. But besides the systematic codes of his predecessors. Karo was able to draw on a vast mass of literature on the Talmud and on Jewish Law, accumulated in the course of centuries.

There was, in the first place, a large collection of “Novelties” (Chiddushim), or Notes on the Talmud, by various authorities. More significant, however, were the “Responses” (Teshuboth), which resembled those of the Gaonim referred to in an earlier chapter. The Rabbinical Correspondence, in the form of Responses to Questions sent from far and near, covered the whole field of secular and religious knowledge. The style of these “Re-