(The Physician). Kether Torah.

David Vital, a Spanish exile, settled in Greece, first in Patras, and following the Turko-Venetian war of 1532, in Arta, where he was welcomed as a pre-eminent halachic authority. Kether Torah is a rhymed summary of the 613 commandments in accordance with Maimonides’s enumeration, together with the seven rabbinical commandments. Hence, the numerical value of the title, “Kether” (620). The work is a commentary to Maimonides’s Sefer HaMitzvoth - whereby each precept is discussed - commencing with Maimonides’s formulation and often concluding with a response to Maimonides’s critics. Despite its unusual poetic form, the Kether Torah remains an important halachic source frequently quoted in the rabbinic literature.