Sepher Halachoth Rav Alfas [Rabbinic code]

FIRST COMPLETE EDITION, EXTREMELY RARE. Isaac Alfasi brought the Geonic period to a close. His fame rests on this great work, whose purpose was to provide a comprehensive compendium for ready reference to facilitate Talmud study. The RI”F is the most important halachic compendium prior to the Yad Ha’Chazakah of the Ramba”m, and indeed paved the way for all later Codifiers. The work remains an important and widely admired Code. R. Joseph Caro regarded Alfasi’s scholarship with utmost respect and determined the laws in his Shulchan Aruch upon his authority. This Constantinople edition represents the earliest complete edition of Alfasi’s magnum opus. Small fragments have been discovered of a Spanish incunable edition of this important Code. The largest fragment (7ff. according to Goff, Heb. 44; or 8 ff. according to A.K. Offenberg, Hebrew Incunabula no. 4) is found in the JTSA. Oxford and Cambridge have smaller fragments. It remains unknown whether the entire RI"F was published in Spain. See H. Z. Dimitrovsky, Sridei Bavli (1979). The Constantinople edition princeps contains important textual variances from the Bomberg 1521 edition. According to Rabinowitz, (Maamar Al Hadfasath Ha-Talmud, pp.296-7), the Bombeg edition is based upon a manuscript which contained insights that were not by Alfasi and the resulting contradictions in the text caused much scholarly confusion. Indeed R. Tam ibn Yachya in his Derech Tamim (appended to his Tumath Yesharim,1620) suggested that certain passages of the Bomberg RI"F should be omitted. Centuries later, even the Romm Vilna edition only added to the confusion, despite its' stated desire to adhere to the more faithful text of the Constantinople edition. The critical edition of the published by Nissan Zaks (Jerusalem,1969) is based upon this Constantinople edition, nevertheless a complete scientific edition is still desired