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Hilchot HaRif הלכות הרי"ף

The "little Talmud" — the Bavli distilled to its operative law in the Bavli's own words. The Rif's code closed the geonic genre of Halachot and opened the rishonim's: the Rambam calls it all but unanswerable, and the Shulchan Aruch treats it as the first of the three pillars on which every ruling stands.

I. Who

Hebrew: הלכות הרי"ף
Also known as: Sefer HaHalachot, Hilchot Rav Alfas
Era: rishonim

II. When

Traditional: composed by the Rif in Fez and completed in his years in Spain, by 4863 AM
Civil (computed): 4820–4863 AM · 1060–1103 CE
Academic: second half of the 11th c. CE, completed by 1103
Duration: ≈43 years
Precision: approximate

IV. What

Language: Babylonian Aramaic
Redaction: Composed by Rav Yitzchak Alfasi (The Rif) across his decades in Fez and, at the end, Lucena — abridging the Bavli in the Bavli's own words and order, deciding the law inside the abridgment.
Structure: The Bavli's practically applicable tractates — Berachot, orders Moed, Nashim, Nezikin, and Chullin — reproduced in the Talmud's own language with the dialectic pruned and each dispute resolved; printed in the back of every standard Talmud edition since.

V. How do we know

Claim	Evidence	Confidence	Sources
The work abridges the Bavli to its halachically operative discussions, covering the tractates whose law applies in exile (Berachot, Moed, Nashim, Nezikin, Chullin), and rules on the outcome — earning its traditional name "Talmud Katan." Confidence is for the work's checkable scope and method.	tradition	★★★★★	Rif Berakhot (Sefaria edition)
The Rambam's esteem is on record — in his introduction to the Mishnah's commentary he writes that the Rif's Halachot supersede the geonic codes and that he differs from it in only a handful of places.	tradition	★★★☆☆	Rambam, Introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah
The Beit Yosef names the Rif first among the three pillars of ruling (Rif, Rambam, Rosh) whose majority decides the law of the Shulchan Aruch (Shulchan Aruch) — making this book a structural ancestor of the codified halachah practiced today.	tradition	★★★★☆	Beit Yosef, introduction to the Tur (the three-pillars rule)