הרמ״א

The Rema, Rabbi Moshe Isserles of Krakow, is the man who gave Ashkenazi Jewry a place at the table. When Rabbi Yosef Karo's 'Shulchan Aruch' appeared, written according to the custom and rulings of the Sephardim, the Rema feared that the Jews of Ashkenaz would find themselves outside the home, and he wrote 'the Mappah' (the Tablecloth): glosses spread over the 'set table' that add in every place the custom and rulings of Ashkenaz.

Thanks to the Mappah the Shulchan Aruch became a book of all Israel. 'Maran' lays out the table, and the Rema spreads the cloth upon it, and ever since the Jews of Sepharad and the Jews of Ashkenaz eat at the same table, each according to his custom, without anyone being pushed out. This was a work of unity without blurring.

The Rema was not only an Ashkenazi decisor but a broad-minded man, who studied also philosophy and Kabbalah, and wrote that Torah and wisdom are not strangers to one another. Yet in ruling he was careful to transmit the custom of his fathers as it was, out of deep respect for the living tradition of his community.

What do we learn from him? That true unity is not the erasing of differences but the granting of a respected place to every custom. The Rema teaches that one can join another's great work, the Shulchan Aruch, and add one's own voice without harming it, and that respect for the tradition of the fathers is a pillar on which all the house of Israel leans.