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As a Sephardi, the Rif’s approach to Talmud was much more concerned with “the bottom line” of behavior than the Ashkenazi. What precisely does the Talmud want us to do? His encyclopedic work of Halacha, precursor to the Shulchan Aruch, took this approach, but with a giant like Rashi as his contemporary, it was not going to be accepted without argument. Rabbi Wein takes us on a whirlwind tour of Talmudic history – from its birth in Babylonia to the divide between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, concluding with the Rambam’s stunning defense of this great master of Torah Law.

• The Rif’s nomadic life – from Morocco to Granada to Lucena
• The conflict with the Rabbis of Provence
• Why the Ashkenazi approach always seems to “win”