Se'if katan (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
: סעיף קטן,
Rashei teivot: ס"ק) is a term for a subsection in the
halachic literature.
In the standard format for commentaries on halachic works, each
se'if (section) of the original work is split into a number of separate se'ifim; such se'ifim are known as se'if katan.
One might reference the first se'if of commentary on
siman 1 se'if 1 of a work by writing siman 1 se'if 1 se'if katan 1 (סימן א' סעיף א' ס"ק א). This format is used, for example, in the
Mishnah Berurah
The ''Mishnah Berurah'' ( "Clear Teaching") is a work of ''halakha'' (Jewish law) by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (Poland, 1838–1933, also known as ''Chofetz Chaim''). It is a commentary on ''Orach Chayim'', the first section of the ''Shulchan Aru ...
(MB). Sometimes when quoting a halacha from such a work one might omit the se'if and only mention the siman and se'if katan, e.g. MB 1:1 (מ"ב סעי' א' ס"ק א).
The term se'if katan is also used to refer to
subsections of Israeli legislation.
References
Jewish law
Jewish texts
Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish law
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