Answer:
   
   Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488 - 1575) made his greatest contribution to
   Jewish law by spending twenty years compiling an enormous halakhic
   work, the Beit Yosef. The Beit Yosef is a huge commentary on the Tur
   in which he clarifies the opinions of authorities who lived after the
   time of Rabbi Yaakov.
   
   However, a work was needed that would let a student determine Jewish
   law without having to wade through all of the voluminous and complex
   literature of the Talmud, the law codes and their commentaries.
   
   Rabbi Karo set out to solve this problem, and finally wrote The
   Shulkhan Arukh (literally, The Set Table) as a concise collection of
   the law brought in his larger work, the Beis Yosef. In writing the
   Shulkhan Arukh, Rabbi Yosef followed the chapter divisions of the Tur,
   although he innovated by breaking each section up into separate
   paragraphs for each law.

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