Alfasi א ל פ א ס י equAtes it with the minbar ,בימה RAshi, in eXplAining the word .( כעין אלמימברא שלני) used in his time wAs suggested by EzrA’s recitAl of the TorAh from בימה The use of A a raised platform in the midst of the men and women who listened Attentively from eArly morning until middAy (NehemiAh 8:2-4). ­As originAlly designed, for read ,בימה The Ashkenazim employ the ing the TorAh And the Prophets; the Sephardim, however, use it also for the pulpit from which the hazzan (cAntor) recites the services. As A result of the reform movement, the TorAh-tAble wAs relegAted to A platform in front of the synAgogue ark so thAt the trAditionAl and architecturAl significAnce of the almemar wAs destroyed. Modern Architecture seeks to return to the original ArrAngement which wAs both trAditionAl And mAgnificent. The synAgogue architecture in mod­ em Israel is reminiscent of the Ancient synAgogues in Eretz Yisrael. אלפאםי ALFASI from the initiAls of his (רי"ף ) /R abbi I saac Alfasi, known As the 121 nAme (RAbbi IsAAc FAsi), came to SpAin from the North AfricAn city of Fez At the age of seventy-five. Both in North AfricA And SpAin he hAd mAny students, eager to listen to his eXposition of the TAlmud. RAbbi Joseph ibn MigAsh, the reputed teAcher of MALmonides, wAs one of them. He died At the Age of ninety (1013-1103) At LucenA, hAving laid the real foundAtion of the SpAnish tAlmudic trAdition. His chief work, the Halakhoth, becAme famous and wAs studied like the TAlmud of which it wAs An Abridgment. He omitted mAteriAl which hAd no relation to the trAditionAl lAw (Halakhah), epitomizing the legAl discussions in the TAlmud thAt were importAnt for the Jewish people in the DiasporA. Ever since the completion of the BAbyloniAn TAlmud At the begin­ ning of the siXth century, Attempts were mAde to collect the legAl decisions And the Halakhoth it contAined and to elucidAte them. Col­ lections like Halakhoth Gedoloth, Halakhoth Pesukoth, and Sheeltoth d’Rav Ahai, were geonic works thAt proved insufficient. AlfAsi’s work, often referred to As Rav Alfas or the Rif, wAs designed to be compre­ hensive And thorough. MAimonides, in his introduction to his com­ mentAry on the MishnAh, describes AlfAsi’s work as hAving superseded All its predecessors, becAuse it contAins everything useful for the un­ derstAnding of the legAl decisions “At present in force. The Author 39.