In this passage, Isserles expresses his hope that his gloss
on Joseph Caro's Shuløan Arukh would help
make Caro's work relevant for Ashkenazic, as well as Sephardic
Jews.
The
author [of the] Beit Yosef and the Shulhan Arukh
is wise and more preferable to a prophet, [he] has . . . prepared
his table, he did not leave room [for another work of halakhah]
to surpass him, except to gather the words of the aharonim
and to teach the ways of the customs that are practiced in
these lands [Poland and other Ashkenazic areas]. I have come
after him to spread a cloth upon his Shulhan Arukh
which he authored and upon which rest fine fruits and tasteful
dishes that man will love. Rather [Caro] follows [the rulings
of] Alfasi
and Maimonides . . . and because of this, scattered among
his books are many things that are not according to the halakhah
as interpreted by . . . the famous decisors of the sons of
Ashkenaz to whom we always look. . . . These [works that Caro
ignores but I consider] are all based upon the [works] of
. . . the sages of France from whom we are descended.... And
I see all his words in the Shulhan Arukh as though
they are from the mouth of Moses [who received them] from
the mouth of God. . . .
And our sages of blessed memory already have stated that
there are many differences between the children of the east
and the children of the west in the early generations, how
much more so in these later generations; therefore, I deem
it necessary to write the opinions of the aharonim [that
contradict the rules quoted by Caro].
