During the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, rabbinic scholars of law
in Franco-German communities had an at best ambivalent attitude toward the codification of
Jewish law. Even Rabbi Joseph Caro’s Shulh. an `Arukh, first printed in Venice in 1565, was
not well received by all. While students of the law from the lower ranks seem to have embraced
the code, many leading rabbis—particularly those in sixteenth- and early seventeenthcentury
Poland—rejected it. In the course of the mid-seventeenth century, attitudes shifted,
and Shulh. an `Arukh became the place for commentaries and learned discussions of the law.
By the eighteenth century, rabbinic courts were using Shulh. an `Arukh as the basis of their legal
decision making. This is confirmed, at least for Frankfurt am Main, through an examination
of the legal diary of Rabbi Nathan Maas (d. 1794). In his diary, Maas not only summarized
cases that he heard but also sometimes offered rationales for the court’s decisions. These pré-
cis make constant reference to Shulh. an `Arukh and its commentaries while never entering into
an analysis of talmudic sources. This cannot have been because of a lack of ability, for Maas
and his colleagues on the Frankfurt court were well-known scholars who published talmudic
commentaries of substance. The use of a code, even by such authorities, may have been for
utilitarian reasons, that is, to speed up the judicial process.

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• The Use of Codified Law in the Rabbinic Courts of Frankfurt am Main on the Eve of the Enlightenment