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In Jewish law and history, Acharonim (Hebrew: [ʔaχ(a)ʁoˈnim] or Hebrew: [ʔaħ(a)roˈnim]; Hebrew: אחרונים Aḥaronim; sing. אחרון, Aḥaron; lit. "last ones") are the leading rabbis and poskim (Jewish legal decisors) living from roughly the 16th century to the present, and more specifically since the writing of the Shulchan Aruch (Hebrew: שׁוּלחָן עָרוּך, "Set Table", a code of Jewish law) in 1563 CE.
The Acharonim follow the Rishonim, the "first ones"—the rabbinic scholars between the 11th and the 16th century following the Geonim and preceding the Shulchan Aruch. The publication of the Shulchan Aruch thus marks the transition from the era of Rishonim to that of Acharonim.
The Acharonim are thus contemporary with the Early Modern Period, the foundation of Hasidic Judaism, Jewish emancipation in Europe, the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), Zionism, the Holocaust, the foundation of the State of Israel and the Jewish exodus from the Muslim world.
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