RIPH ( f l ,f '"∣ or c l"^'^J), t.e., Rabbenu Yishak b. Ya'akob Hakkohen Al-phasi or Al-fezi, after the death of his teachers the greatest rabbi of Africa, and subsequently of the Peninsula, in the llth and l2th centuries, was born in 1013 at KaΓat-Ibn-Hammad near Fez, and died at Lucena in 1103. His teachers were the great rabbins Rabbenu Nissim and Rabbenu Hananeel, both of Kairawan ( ob . 1055). What Rashi (ç.v.) was to the Ashkenazic Riph was for the Sepharadic Jews, not only a teacher of the deepest learning, but also one who made new paths altogether for the students of the Talmud. Otherwise these tw τ o great men differed widely from one another in their activity. Rashi left the Babylonian Talmud, corrections of the text excepted (which he, however, confined to his own commentary, and by which his own disciples and publishers corrected the Talmud text), in its old state. Al-phasi, however, first separated from it the Agadah, which he cast aside almost entirely, and then he sifted the Hala-khah thoroughly, retaining only the practical part of it. Thus either title his book has received is correct, the Little Talmud or the Decisions of Rab Al-phez. Late in the 12th century and in the 13th a host of rabbins respectively attacked and defended Al-phasi (see Rabad III., and Rλmban), whilst others commented on him (see below). One of the commentaries accompanying the Riph is by Rashi. This commentary, however, which is now an integral part of the book, was not written for it by Rashi himself, who could scarcely have known of Riph’s existence, and much less of his work. The fact is the enterprising publisher of the second edition (Venice, 1521-22, fol.), the famous Daniel Bombergi, had one of the three recensions which Rashi had made on the Talmud excerpted and ...