SARDI, SAMUEL BEN ISAAC

SARDI, SAMUEL BEN ISAAC (1185/90–1255/56), Spanish halakhist. Sardi lived in Barcelona and was well-to-do. Among the deeds written in Barcelona during the years 1073–1328 and published by Millás Vallicrosa are a number dated the beginning of the 13th century which are connected with the letting by Sardi of his lands and properties. Sardi was a pupil and colleague of Naḥmanides and sent him many halakhic queries to which he obtained detailed responsa; some of them, included in the Sefer Ha-Terumot, also appear in the works of the Rishonim (see Asaf in bibl.). Sardi also corresponded with Nathan b. Meir of Trinquetaille (Sefer ha-Terumot, gate 52) and began compiling his important work, Ha-Terumot, when he was 30 years old, finishing it in about 1225. This work deals only with civil and commercial law and is, in fact, the first comprehensive code in Jewish law devoted solely to civil law. It had a considerable influence on Jewish law, chiefly through the Arba'ah Turim of jacob b. asher which is often based on it in the section Ḥoshen Mishpat. In the introduction, and in the work itself, Sardi mentions another of his works, Sefer Ha-Zikhronot, which is not extant. Its scope is unknown, but from his references to it it appears to have consisted of talmudic novellae. Ha-Terumot was published in Salonika (1596, 1628), Prague (1608) and Venice (1643), the last with a valuable commentary by Azariah Figo, entitled Giddulei Terumah (2nd ed. Zolkiev 1709). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Azulai, 1 (1852), 177, no. 129; 2 (1852), 160, n. 98; Gross, Gal Jud, 326; M. Schwab, Rapport sur les Inscriptions Hébraïques de l'Espagne (1907), 151f. (= Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques, 14 (1907), 379f.); J.M. Millás Vallicrosa, Documents Hebraics de jueus Catalans (1927), 21ff.; S. Assaf, Sifran shel Rishonim   (1935), 53–55; F. Cantera and J.M. Millás Vallicrosa, Las inscripciones hebráicas de España (1956), 346–8. (Shlomoh Zalman Havlin)