| Summary: | A study of R. Nissim's Commentary to the Halakhot of Alfasi reveals a work composed of three distinct literary elements. The first is a running commentary to the text of Alfasi, for which R. Nissim relies heavily upon Rashi's commentary to the Talmud and adapts that composition to the needs of the Halakhot. The second is an apparatus of annotation, a summary of Nahmanidean interpretation of Talmudic passages and legal issues, "updating" the Alfasi so that it can serve as an authoritative guide to halakha for the fourteenth-century Spanish community. Finally, R. Nissim's most striking contribution lies in the effort he devotes to commentary on the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, exceeding all similar works in the extent to which he integrates the study of Maimonides' rulings into the study of their Talmudic sources. This helps explain R. Yosef Karo's designation of R. Nissim as a commentator on Maimonides. R. Nissim's Commentary exerts considerable influence upon Karo's Beit Yosef and Shulḥan Arukh, both in Karo's explication of Maimonides and in his determination of the law.
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