Jacob Adler Fall 2009

Jacob AdlerFall 2009

From the late 11

th

Century through the beginning of the 14

th

century the world of CentralEuropean Talmudic Scholarship was dominated and transformed by the Baalei Tosafos

. FromSouthern Germany through Northern Spain the loose group of affiliated scholars and their students revitalized and spread their brand of Talmudic learning. The Ba’alei Tosafosrepresented the first permanent decentralization of Talmudic Scholastics and Academies sincethe time of the Talmud. The move away from a few closely connected centers as was seen in theRhine communities in the pre-crusade and immediately post crusade era helped to permanentlyestablish their network of schools as the preeminent Academies in Europe. The methods thatwere cultivated throughout the Tosafist centers of influence became the predominant methods of Talmudism in Central and Northern Europe and provided much of the basis for the modernYeshiva. The development of the Tosafists and their unique and, often amongst modernscholars, controversial methods and decisions can be traced to the philosophy and worldview of a select few original students of the first generation after Rashi, most specifically his grandsonJacob ben Meir, Rabbeinu Tam

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. The proof of this can be seen through an understanding of their system of commentary as it comes down to us, as compared to that of scholars immediately prior and post , Tosafist era.The Tosafists originated from the family and disciples of Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac,Rashi

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. The great biblical commentator and Talmudic expositor, Rashi was reared in Troyes,educated in Worms and eventually settled in his home town. To describe the impact thatSolomon ben Isaac had on the world of Talmud in general and that of the Franco-German

1 Literally “ Masters of Additions”2 Rabbi Jacob ben Meir, the son of Rabbi Meir ben Shmuel and the grandson of Rashi, c.1100–c. 1171 .This name refers to the verse in Genesis 25:27, “ And Jacob was an Ish Tam( Perfect Man) dwelling in Tents”, it was issued to Jacob ben Meir because of his name Jacoband his “perfect” nature.3 Rabbi Solomon Ben Isaac, February 22, 1040 – July 13, 1105

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Jacob AdlerFall 2009

communities in specific, is almost impossible. In some communities, Rashi’s commentary became a surrogate for the Talmud itself upon its burning. In other communities it simply became an indispensable aide to comprehending the dialectics of the Talmudic science. IndeedRashi’s commentary was also unique in the fact that it became one of the earliest Ashkenazi

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commentaries to not be immediately associated with a place or a particular academy, Rashi was,so to speak, placeless .Rashi’s “

Kuntres

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” was also unique in its development, as AbrahamGrossman states in his work “ The Early Sages of France”

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, many prior commentaries had beencompiled from the personal notebooks of students in the major academies,

“ The students would compile notebooks in front of their teachers, they would take these with them in their passagethrough various Yeshivos, they would add into them explanations from their new teachers or from their in depth studies and the give and take that they would have with their colleagues

”.In prior generations Yeshivos

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, and the commentaries themselves were mostly referenced by their location or proximity to a major city. Indeed, even commentaries bearing the name of asingle author such as the commentary of Rabbeinu Gershom

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, Light of the Exile, was most probably the commentary of the yeshiva that he headed, and not solely his work

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. In addition, prior to Rashi and more accurately the Tosafists, when a Rosh Yeshiva

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or scholar died, theyeshiva itself continued on almost unchanged albeit with new leadership. “

These academies

4 Medieval German5 This translates to “Pamphlet” and was the common name of Rashi’s commentary for manyyears due to its original publication in this format.6 The Early Sages of France – A Grossman p 4287 Talmudic Academies8 Rabbi Gershom ben Judah, 960-1040, the preeminent German Talmudist of his day, giventhe appellation of “ Light of the Exile” for his impact upon Ashkenazic Jewry9 I. Ta-Shma, “R. Gershom Meor Hagolah’s Commentary on the Talmud” Hebrew UniversityPress, Kiryat Sefer, p 5310 Head of a Talmudic Academy

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Jacob AdlerFall 2009

were tied to their communities; and while Roshei Yeshiva invariably passed on , the communityand its yeshiva remained. For substantial periods of time these schools existed as centers towhich new students and Roshei Yeshiva came. In the Tosafist period, however, a town or a cityhad a first- rate academy only as long as a particular Tosafist lived there

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.

”The Tosafists themselves began as additional glosses to the commentary of Rashi.EEUrbach notes in his work “ The Tosafists their Generations, Writings and Positions”, that theinitial generation of Tosafists were concentrated in finishing the work of Rashi, both the actualwritings and notes and commentaries on them.These first steps were taken by Rashi’s mostardent and long standing students

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, this work was necessary according to Urbach in order to “close out his works and to begin a new era”

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.After the initial work of the students of Rashi the Tosafists transformed into a separatework on their own .Ta Shma notes the concept of “addition” became important to the verythought of the Tosafists and instrumental to whom they allowed to be catalogued in their midst.

“Halakhic hiddush,, innovation, became the supreme peak of achievement in the study of theTalmud and a student unable to “add to his learning “( Lehosif, R’Tam Sefer Hayashar) was not entitled to issue halakhic rulings to the community

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”. Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel a 20

th

century Talmudic scholar in his work “

Hamidos Lecheker Halacha

”, which was both a historicalstudy of Talmudism as well as a methodological work on talmudic definitions, defined thedifference between the Tosafists and their fellow sages in Spain as such

“ The difference

11 E. Kanarfogel, Jewish Education and Society in the High Middle Ages, p 5712 Among these was Rabbeinu Meir ben Shmuel ( 1060-1135), Rashi’s son in law and thefather of Rabbeinu Tam , Rashbam and Rabbi Isaac ben Meir, all prominent Tosafists in theirown right.13 EE Urbach, “ Baalei HaTosafos” vol.1 p 21-2214 I.Ta-Shma, Creativity and Tradition: Studies in Medieval Rabbinic Scholarship, Literatureand Thought, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA,2006 p 89

.

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