Halachot Pesukot

Halachot Pesukot (Hebrew: הלכות פסוקות) is a condensed rabbinic work written by Yehudai Gaon in the Geonic Era, containing chapters on common Jewish halachic themes. The work was compiled in the 8th-century and is written in Aramaic, and follows the format of Halachot Gedolot which antedates it by about 20 years.^[1]

Authorship

While the work is generally attributed to Gaon, some scholars disagree that he wrote the work, and attribute scholarship to Rabbi Exilarch Natronai Bar Habibai Nasi.^[2]

Editions

In 1886, A.L. Schlossberg published in Versailles an edition of Halachot Pesukot which he based on the Oxford Manuscript. In 1911, David Solomon Sassoon purchased a handwritten manuscript of the work while visiting Yemen, which based on its style, appears to have been written in Babylon or Persia in the ninth or tenth century.^[3] A description of the manuscript is found in Sassoon's Ohel Dawid catalogue. The manuscript was first published by his son, Solomon David Sassoon, in 1951,^[4] and has been published several times since then by other editors.^[5][6]

Schlossberg's edition, which he prepared from the Oxford Manuscript, differs slightly from the Sassoon Manuscript version. Schlossberg's edition contains 3 additional halakhic discourses on Megillah, Hanukkah, and Kosher wine, which do not appear in Sassoon's copy. Conversely, Sassoon's copy contains 2 additions not found in Schlossberg's edition: Berakhot and the Defects of slaughtered animals in the Land of Israel.^[7]

References

1. Ibn-Daʾud, Avraham; Ben-Ḥalaftâ, Yôsê (1955). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.). Seder ʿolam raba ṿe-seder ʿolam zota ṿe-sefer ha-Ḳabalah le-ha-Rabad (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Gil Publishers. p. 27. OCLC 754774918.
2. Epstein, Yaakov Nachim (1945). "תשלום פירוש הגאונים: לטהרות" [The Supplement to the Gaonic Commentary to Taharot]. Tarbiz (in Hebrew). ט"ז (ב'/ג'): 71–134. ISSN 0334-3650 – via JSTOR.
3. David Solomon Sassoon, Ohel David (vol. 1), Preface, Oxford University Press : London 1932, pp. x-xi. (OCLC 71513156).
4. Yehudai Gaon (1951). Sassoon, S.D. (ed.). Sefer Halachot Pesukot (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Mekitze Nirdamim. OCLC 1140886734.
5. Yehudai ben Nahman (2016). Etz-Chayim, Yehonatan (ed.). Halachot Pesukot Ha-shalem, based on the S. Sassoon MS (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook. OCLC 993219181.; (OCLC 880847587)
6. Yehudai ben Nahman (1999). Sefer Halachot Pesukot le-rav Yehudai Gaon z"l (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Mekhon 'Ahavat Shalom'. OCLC 233180091.
7. Sassoon, D.S. (1932). Ohel Dawid - Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library. Vol. 1. London: Humphrey Milford: Oxford University Press. p. 124. OCLC 912964204.