The Codification of Jewish Law and an Introduction to the Jurisprudence of the Mishna Berura

The Mishna Berura is without a doubt Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan's greatest and most complex contribution to the canon of Orthodox Jewish Law; it is a singular work that synthesizes Jewish traditions laws and mores into a practical halakhic guide to daily religious life. For all of his traditionalism Rabbi Kagan was an iconoclast and the Mishna Berura broke from many of the traditional approaches of deciding halakhic directives. Instead he favored studying engaging and asserting decisions in a nuanced almost natural approach to how ethical people should live their daily lives consistent withJewish law. Today the Mishna Berura has gained widespread recognition and is considered authoritative by essentially all of contemporary Orthodox Jewry a measure of greatness that few works of Halakha have attained. Michael J. Broyde and Ira Bedzow here investigate this seminal text and explore its background and decision-making process.