Book of the Laws: On the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berakhot

Isaac al-Fāsī

Sefer ha-halakhot (Book of the Laws), b. Berakhot 30b

Late 11th Century

Illustration of five people in colorful robes and gold turbans sitting under trees, playing instruments and holding drinks, with Arabic lettering above.
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Isaac al-Fāsī comments here on a line in the Talmud that suggests that prayer should be done in a state of reverent fear and trembling. He collects various passages—from elsewhere in the Talmud and from a ruling of Hayya Ga’on—that consider the question of the general permissibility of song and music, distinguishing between instrumental and vocal, liturgical and nonliturgical.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval Law and Religious Observance

7th to 12th Century

Creator Bio

Isaac al-Fāsī

1013–1103

Isaac ben Jacob ha-Kohen al-Fāsī (known as Rif) was born in Qal‘at Ḥammād in what is now Algeria. After studying with leading scholars in Qayrawān, now Tunisia, al-Fāsī moved to Fez, now Morocco. He left Fez for Lucena, Spain, in 1088 and became the head of the academy there after the death of Isaac Ibn Ghiyath (1038–1089). Al-Fāsī was the author of hundreds of responsa, primarily written in Judeo-Arabic, but his most lasting contribution is his Hebrew and Aramaic Book of the Laws (Sefer ha-halakhot), a digest of the Babylonian Talmud that largely omits dialectic, legends, and nonapplicable laws. Al-Fāsī frequently cites Hayya Ga’on (939–1038) and other geonim. The Book of the Laws was immensely popular, attracted countless later commentaries, and exerted tremendous influence on the legal tradition, particularly on Maimonides (1138–1204). This work is included in all standard editions of the Babylonian Talmud.

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