AMARKAL

AMARKAL (Heb.אָמַרְכָּל), an anonymous halakhic compendium written in the 13th–14th century by a pupil of asher b. Jehiel, whose first name seems to have been Baruch. The work embodies valuable halakhic and literary material dating from the previous two centuries, particularly concerning the distinctive ritual of the German and French communities. The author quotes decisions of his father and reports his own observation and experience. Shalom b. Isaac of Vienna (14th century) already quotes the Amarkal. About the same time Ḥayyim b. David, the copyist of isaac b. meir dueren 's Sha'arei Dura, used the work in his annotations. A manuscript, written before 1440, from which N. Coronel published a selection (Likkutim me-Hilkhot Mo'adim in Ḥamishah Kunteresim, 1864) is at Jews' College library (London). J. Freimann published the section Yein Nesekh in Festschrift… D. Hoffmann and M. Higger published Hilkhot Pesaḥ in A. Marx Jubilee Volume. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Freimann, in: Festschrift… D. Hoffmann (1914), 421–32 (Ger. section), 12–23 (Heb. section); M. Higger, in: A. Marx Jubilee Volume (1950), 143–73; idem, in: Talpiot, 5 (1950), 196–200.