Abstract
Around the year 1420, the famed legal authority, Jacob Molin of Worms (known as Maharil), was asked by a rabbinic colleague and friend, Ḥayyim Tsarfatti of Wiener-Neustadt (previously of Augsburg) regarding his intention to write a book on the laws of family purity in the German-Jewish vernacular, Yiddish (leshon ashkenaz), for the purpose of making these laws more accessible to the broader reading public, including women. Maharil’s response was a sharp one and revealed his fundamental negative attitude toward all works of popular halakhah:1
And I was astonished that you were considering writing [a handbook] in German — for we are distraught over the previous ones [i.e. legal handbooks written in Hebrew] — because every layman who is able to read Rashi’s commentary on the Pentateuch or [one who can read the material] from the maḥzor2 or [those who studied] the interpretation (shittah) [i.e. the Tosafist’s glosses to the Talmud] in their youth but had ceased [studying] days and years ago, or those who never apprenticed with an established scholar (lo shimmesh talmidé ḥakhamim] — all these [readers] joined together in the “valley of the fools” and look to the words of our teachers, the authors [of handbooks] such as Sha‘aré dura, Semak, Turin3 … and they determine and implement the law based on these books!4 They are about whom the Talmudic sages referred to … as “Tanna’im who bring destruction upon the world” (Sotah 22a), for they do not comprehend the legal reasoning [of the law] and the application of ritual and civil law which can change according to the reasoning of the law …5
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Notes
See Israel J. Yuval, Ḥakhamim be-doram (Jerusalem, 1989), 311–318. To a large extent, my understanding of this exchange and its significance has been shaped by Yuval’s treatment. See as well Agnes Romer-Segal, “Yiddish Works on Women’s Commandments in the Sixteenth Century,” Studies in Yiddish Literature and Folklore (Jerusalem, 1986), 37–59;
Edward A. Fram, My Dear Daughter: Rabbi Benjamin Slonik and the Education of Jewish Women in Sixteenth-century Poland (Cincinnati, 2007), 12–15.
Sha‘aré dura was a work that focused on prohibitions relating to food preparation and family purity. The work was authored in Germany by Isaac of Dura during the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Semak or as its author titled his work ‘Ammudé golah is a popular legal handbook (discussed below) covering all relevant laws to a Jew living in medieval Europe. The work was completed in France by Isaac of Corbeil around the years 1276–1277. Turin should be read Turim is the work known as Arba‘ah turim, a four-volume work that treats in depth all aspects of the law relevant to a medieval Jew. It was authored in Toledo by a German émigré to Spain, Jacob b. Asher ca. 1320–1340. For brief descriptions of all these works see Menahem Elon, Jewish Law–History, Sources, Principles (Philadelphia, 1994), 3: 1248–1249 (Sha‘aré dura); 1263–1265 (Semak); and 1277–1302 (Turim).
One may also add the professionalization of the rabbinate at this time. On these events and their impact see Yedidya A Dinari, Ḥakhmé ashkenaz be-shalhé yemé habenayim (Jerusalem, 1984), 56–63
and Mordechai Breuer’s “Prologue: The Jewish Middle-Ages,” in German-Jewish History in Modern Times, ed. Michael A. Meyer (New York, 1996), 1: 54–57;
Eric Zimmer, Harmony and Discord: an Analysis of the Decline of Jewish Self-government in Fifteenth Century Central Europe (New York, 1970), 118–123.
This basic distinction was already noted by Ephraim Kanarfogel in his recent book. See Ephraim Kanarfogel, The Intellectual History and Rabbinic Culture of Medieval Ashkenaz (Detroit, 2013), 5–6.
See Ephraim E. Urbach, Ba‘alé ha-tosafot (Jerusalem, 1980), 347–354;
Simcha Emanuel, “‘Ve-ish al mekomo mevo’ar shemo’: le-toldotav shel R. Barukh b. Yitsḥak,” Tarbiz 69 (2000), 423–440 and recently,
Yoel Friedman, “Sefer ha-terumah le-Rabbenu Barukh b. R. Yitsḥak: Megammot mivne ve-nusaḥ,” (PhD dissertation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2013).
For a description of the Tosafist scholastic approach to the Talmud, see Haym Soloveitchik, Collected essays (Oxford, 2013), 1: 3–10.
In the standard printed edition the introduction can be found in Barukh b. Isaac, Sefer ha-terumah (Warsaw, 1897), 196 and I utilized Vatican—Biblioteca Apostolica ebr. 145 order to correct the text.
The best concise study of Moses of Coucy, his life and works remains that of Ephraim E. Urbach, Ba‘alé ha-tosafot, 465–479. See as well Elon, Jewish Law, 1261–1263, and Judah D. Galinsky, “The Significance of Form: R. Moses of Coucy’s Reading Audience and his Sefer ha-Mitsvot,” AJS Review 35 (2011): 293–321.
See Isadore Twersky, Introduction to the Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah) (New Haven, 1980), esp. 188–195, 259–272.
See Urbach, Ba‘alé ha-tosafot, 466–471 and Judah D. Galinsky, “R. Moshe mi-Coucy ke-ḥasid, darshan u-fulmusan,” MA thesis, Bernard Revel Graduate School (New York, 1993), and Galinsky, “The Significance of Form,” 298–299.
See Urbach, Ba‘alé ha-tosafot, 488–490, and Israel M. Ta-Shma, Keneset meḥkarim (Jerusalem, 2004), 4: 264–268.
Avraham Y. Ḥavazelet, “Sefer simane mitsvot le-Rabbenu Avraham b. Efrayim,” in Sefer ha-zikaron li-khevodo u-le-zikhro shel R. Yitsḥak Yedidya Frankel, ed. David B. Lau and Yosef Buksbaum (Tel-Aviv, 1992), 281–304, see especially 288, n. 14.
See Urbach, Ba‘alé ha-tosafot, 571–574; Ta-Shma, Keneset meḥkarim, 265; Elon, Jewish Law, 1263–1265; Ephraim Kanarfogel, “German Pietism in Northern France: The Case of R. Isaac of Corbeil,” in Hazon Nahum; Studies in Jewish Law, Thought, and History Presented to Dr. Norman Lamm, ed. Yaakov Elman and Jeffrey S. Gurock (Hoboken, 1997), 207–227.
Isaac is explicit about this in the letter he appended to his work. The letter serves as an introduction in all standard pr inted editions of the book. See Sefer ‘ammudé golah … ha-nikra semak (Jerusalem, 2005), 1. For Isaac’s program in its medieval context and a partial translation of this introduction, see Sarit Shalev-Eyni, Jews among Christians: Hebrew Book Illumination from Lake Constance (London, 2010), 14–16,
and Shimon Schwarzfuchs, Yehudé tsarfat be-yemé ha-benayim (Tel Aviv, 2001), 265–266.
See Sefer ‘ammudé golah, 2 and Judith R. Baskin, “Some Parallels in the Education of Medieval Jewish and Christian Women,” Jewish History, 5 (1991), 41–51, esp. 43. He most probably had in mind study with the help of a learned male.
As Urbach has shown (ibid., 436–439) Isaac was born in Bohemia and studied in his youth with local scholars there and in addition to studying in the Rhineland, Isaac traveled to Paris to study under the great Tosafist Judah Sir Leon and travelled to Regensburg where he studied with famous Judah the Pious (He-ḥasid). On the French aspect of Isaac’s career, see Avraham (Rami) Reiner, “From Rabbenu Tam to R. Isaac of Vienna: The Hegemony of the French Talmudic school in the twelfth century,” in The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries), ed. Christoph Cluse (Turnhout, 2004), 273–282.
His son Ḥayyim followed his example and studied in Germany (with the great Meir of Rothenburg) and spent time throughout his life in various cities in Germany and cities in the east, see Noah Goldstein, Rabbi Hayyim Eliezer ben Isaac Or Zarua: his life and work, and a digest of his responsa, D. H. L. dissertation, Yeshiva University, (1959), 23–26.
For basic biographic information on all these scholars and for a description of the works by Eliezer ben Joel and Isaac Or Zarua‘, see Urbach’s Ba‘alé ha-tosafot. However for a description of Eliezer’s lost book see Simcha Emanuel, Shivré luḥot: sifré halakhah avudim shel ba‘alé ha-tosafot (Jerusalem, 2006), 86–103.
In general see Urbach, Ba‘alé ha-tosafot, 388–411 for a more in-depth description of some of his works see Simha Emanuel’s introduction to his edition of R. Eleazar of Worms, Derasha le-fesaḥ (Jerusalem, 2006), 1–66.
Much has been written on this unique group and its impact upon Franco-German Jewry. The group’s beginning can be found in Speyer (and later in Regensburg) toward the end of the twelfth century. In general, see Ivan G. Marcus, Piety and Society: the Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany (Leiden, 1981), 36–41, and “The Historical Meaning of Hasidei Ashkenaz: Fact, Fiction, or Cultural Self-Image?” in Gershom Scholem’s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism 50 Years After, ed. Peter Schäfer and Joseph Dan (Tübingen, 1993), 103–116.
See as well H. Soloveitchik, “Piety, Pietism and German Pietism; ‘Sefer Ḥasidim I’ and the Influence of ‘Ḥasidei Ashkenaz,’” Jewish Quarterly Review 92 (2002), 455–493 and the JQR volume (Forum: Sefer Hasidim) devoted to this article, Jewish Quarterly Review 96 (2006).
As to the difference between mainstream German scholars and those belonging to the Pietist group during the thirteenth century, see, for example, Ephraim Kanarfogel, Peering through the Lattices: Mystical, Magical, and Pietistic Dimensions in the Tosafist Period (Detroit, 2000), 45–50, 214–217.
See Haym Soloveitchik, “Three Themes in the Sefer Ḥasidim,” AJS Review I (1976), 339–344
and Israel M. Ta-Shma, “Mitsvat talmud torah ke-ba‘aya ḥevratit-datit be-sefer ḥasidim,” in his Halakhah, minhag, u-metsi’ut be-ashkenaz, 1000–1350 (Jerusalem, 1996), 112–129.
Laws that allowed the Jew to carry on the Sabbath in the public domain via the construction of “fictitious” walls that convert the public into private space, see recently Micha Perry, “Imaginary Space meets Actual Space in Thirteenth-century Cologne: Eliezer ben Yoel and the Eruv,” Images 5 (2011) 26–36.
See Ephraim Kanarfogel, “Preservation, Creativity, and Courage: The Life and Works of R. Meir of Rothenburg,” Jewish Book Annual, 50 (1992), 249–259.
See Urbach, Ba‘alé ha-tosafot and Kanarfogel, The Intellectual History as well as Susan L. Einbinder, Beautiful Death: Jewish Poetry and Martyrdom in Medieval France (Princeton, 2002), 70–80.
The best biographical sketch of the Rosh remains that of Abraham H. Freimann, “Ascher ben Jechiel, sein Leben und Wirken,” Jahrbuch der Jüdisch-Literarischen Gesellschaft 12 (1918), 237–317. Freimann wrote about the Rosh’s family in a separate paper, “Die Ascheriden (1267–1391),” Jahrbuch der Jüdisch-Literarischen Gesellschaft 13 (1919–1920), 142–254.
The two articles were translated into Hebrew by Menahem Eldar, Ha-Rosh: Rabbenu Asher b. R. Yeḥi’el ve-tse’etsa’av (Jerusalem, 1986);
for corrections to the Freimann account, see Israel M. Ta-Shma, “Between East and West: Rabbi Asher b. Yehiel and his son Rabbi Yaaqov,” in Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature III, ed. Isadore Twersky and Jay M. Harris (Cambridge, MA, 2000), 179–196.
See Elon, Jewish Law, 1226–1229 and Judah D. Galinsky, “Ashkenazim in Sefarad: The Rosh and the Tur on the Codification of Jewish Law,” Jewish Law Annual 16 (2006), 3–23, especially 4–12.
See Galinsky, “Ashkenazim,” 11. One would also have to compare his work to the Halakhot of Isaac Alfasi of Spain and North Africa. See Judah D. Galinsky, “Ha-Rosh ha-ashkenazi bi-sefarad: ‘tosafot ha-Rosh’, ‘piské ha-Rosh’, yeshivat ha-Rosh,” Tarbiz 74 (2005), 404–409.
This can be seen by their emphasis on local customs and the inclusion of responsa and court decisions in their works. All of these elements add much local color to their presentation. In the French legal works all of the above is either completely absent or very much downplayed. A similar point has recently been made by Ivan Marcus with regard to the French Talmudic culture, see Ivan G. Marcus, “Why Did Medieval Northern French Jewry (Tsarfat) Disappear?” in Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times: A Festschrift in Honor of Mark R. Cohen, ed. Arnold E. Franklin et al. (Leiden, 2013). I thank Micha Perry for calling my attention to the relevance of Marcus’ study for my thesis.
See Judah Galinsky “Rabbis, Readers and the Paris Book Trade: Understanding French Halakhic Literature in the 13th Century” to be published in Elisheva Baumgarten, Katelyn Mesler, and Ruth Karras eds., Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Transmission in Thirteenth-Century Jewish Cultures (Philadelphia, 2015).
For a broad overview of these developments and a select bibliography see Lesley Smith, “The Theological Framework,” in The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 4, Christianity in Western Europe, c.1100–c.1500, ed. Miri Rubin and Walter Simons (Cambridge, 2009), 75–88, especially 78–81, as well as her study in this volume (chapter 1)
and Joseph Goering, William de Montibus (c. 1140–1213): The Schools and the Literature of Pastoral Care (Toronto, 1992), 58–99. See as well chapter 2 in this volume.
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Galinsky, J.D. (2015). Between Ashkenaz (Germany) and Tsarfat (France): Two Approaches toward Popularizing Jewish Law. In: Baumgarten, E., Galinsky, J.D. (eds) Jews and Christians in Thirteenth-Century France. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137317582_6
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