Page "Talmud" Paragraph 53

One area of Talmudic scholarship developed out of the need to ascertain the Halakha.

Early commentators such as Rabbi Isaac Alfasi ( North Africa, 1013 – 1103 ) attempted to extract and determine the binding legal opinions from the vast corpus of the Talmud.

Alfasi's work was highly influential, attracted several commentaries in its own right and later served as a basis for the creation of halakhic codes.

Another influential medieval Halakhic work following the order of the Babylonian Talmud, and to some extent modelled on Alfasi, was " the Mordechai ", a compilation by Mordechai ben Hillel ( c. 1250 – 1298 ).

A third such work was that of Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel ( d. 1327 ).

All these works and their commentaries are printed in the Vilna and many subsequent editions of the Talmud.