A Collection of Jewish Philosophical Prayers

This chapter considers the philosophical quest for God that found powerful expression in medieval Hebrew poetry. It mentions poets that composed hymns in praise of the deity and his creations as philosophers who understood them and poetically expressed their great thirst for the divine presence. It also reviews poetical compositions on the soul or on the wonders of nature that may be contemplated with devotional intent, and specific compositions whose direct address to the deity indisputably marks them as prayers. The chapter looks at Solomon Ibn Gabirol's 'Keter malkhut' which found its way into some standard liturgies. It examines philosophical prayers attributed to Aristotle and other non-Jews that were included in Hebrew collections.

From Germany to Northern France and Back Again: A Tale of Two Tosafist Centres

This chapter cites Simcha Emanuel, who has referred to a lacuna in the rabbinic leadership of German Jewry during the second quarter of the thirteenth century. It recounts how rabbinic figures did not flourish in Germany for nearly a generation following the passing of several distinguished Tosafists and halakhic authorities who had been active throughout the first two decades of that century of Cologne. It also probes the crisis of leadership that lasted until Meir ben Barukh of Rothenburg, which succeeded in re-establishing the highest levels of Torah scholarship and teaching in Germany during the second half of the thirteenth century. The chapter analyses why the cohort of leading rabbinic scholars did not cultivate any students who could serve as their successors in Germany. It talks about Ya'akov Sussman, who showed that the connections between the Tosafist study halls in northern France and in Germany.

Attraction and Attribution: Framings of Sephardi Identity in Ashkenazi Prayer Books

This chapter recounts how maskilim and early representatives of Wissenschaft des Judentums divided the shares of Jewish culture between Ashkenaz and Sepharad in order to address questions of Jewish identity arising in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Germany. It looks at the perception of medieval Jewish culture that affected the views of their contemporaries. It also analyses the acceptance of cultural goods between the Jewish communities of Ashkenaz and Sepharad and the notion of the divide. The chapter reviews studies that show how texts and ideas were transmitted between the different communities that were adapted and incorporated into the regional Jewish cultures. It describes collective cultural identities and their dynamism that can be studied in a nuanced way through examination of the transfer of cultural objects from one region to another.

Prophets and Their Impact in the High Middle Ages: A Subculture of Franco-German Jewry

This chapter covers one of the most intriguing statements found in the vast opus of R. Solomon Yitshaki (Rashi), in which he claims that the people of Israel in exile are sons of prophets. It tackles the distinction between the biblical terms 'prophets' and 'sons of prophets', including their implications or the rabbinic sources used by Rashi when referring to Jews as sons of prophets. It also highlights the centrality of custom as something that unifies all Jews in exile and also ensures their elevated spiritual status. The chapter describes the mode of behaviour and specific type of performance that is quintessential for maintaining the quasi-prophetic element in all Jews. It cites the claim that post-biblical Jews are potential sons of prophets, which implied continuity between the biblical and medieval times in both a ritual and spiritual sense.

A New Look at Medieval Jewish Exegetical Constructions of Peshat in Christian and Muslim Lands: Rashbam and Maimonides

This chapter notes peshat as a concept that means something different to Jewish scholars living within different majority cultures. It clarifies the divergent 'hermeneutical trajectories' of peshat and links their differences to cultural elements in their broader societies. It also provides a detailed analysis of passages in the writings of R. Samuel ben Meir of northern France, and of R. Moses ben Maimon of Egypt, which demonstrates that their divergent understandings of peshat reflected vastly different assumptions about the relationship between exegesis and halakhah. The chapter examines midrashic interpretations that 'overrode' the scripture's peshat meaning and determined the law as it was to be practised. The chapter also recounts how Maimonides made peshuto shel mikra his legal foundation.

The Sacrifice of the Souls of the Righteous upon the Heavenly Altar: Transformations of Apocalyptic Traditions in Medieval Ashkenaz

This chapter describes the surprising motif found in early medieval rabbinic traditions that appears in some manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud and concerns the sacrifice of 'the souls of the righteous' upon the heavenly altar. It compares the motif, background, and transmission of medieval rabbinic traditions with other traditions concerning the 'souls of the righteous' in rabbinic literature and with precedents in texts of the Second Temple period. The chapter outlines early Enochic traditions, apocalyptic texts of the Second Temple period, and early Christian cultural traditions and beliefs. It indicates the nexus between Christian and Byzantine Jewish traditions, which became manifest in the development of motifs and textual sources during the first centuries of the Common Era and later expressed in medieval Ashkenazi texts. It also provides evidence on cultural transmission between Byzantine works, traditions of the East, and the cultural milieu of medieval Ashkenaz.

Rabbinic Politics, Royal Conquest, and the Creation of a Halakhic Tradition in Medieval Provence

This chapter reviews the Jewish culture of early medieval Europe, which is largely hidden by the mists of time and emerges into the light of surviving literary evidence only in the eleventh century. It refers to R. Isaac ben Jacob of Fez and R. Gershom ben Judah of Mainz, who provide a starting point for solid information about what rabbinic Judaism looked like in Spain and Germany. It also mentions R. Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi), who inaugurated the most creative Talmud centre in medieval Europe after he travelled from his home in northern France to the academies of the Rhineland. The chapter talks about historians who theorize about what was going on in the Midi while the Spanish and German academies were putting down roots. It also probes the scholarly consensus that detects an early Ashkenazi orientation in southern France.

The Bifurcated Legacy of Rabbi Moses Hadarshan and the Rise of Peshat Exegesis in Medieval France

This chapter investigates plain-sense Bible interpretations as examples of peshat, which were produced by Jewish linguists of the Islamicate world who were familiar with developments in quranic exegesis, Arabic lexicography and grammar. It mentions R. Moses Hadarshan as the earliest known pashtan in non-Islamic Europe during eleventh-century Provence and has the moniker Hadarshan, which gives the impression that he was better known at one time for his homiletical interpretations of scripture. It also recounts how R. Moses became the pioneer of both peshat and derash (homiletical) exegesis on European soil. The chapter talks about R. Moses's sermonic material that surfaced in a thirteenth-century assemblage of rabbinic writings compiled by Christians. It considers the possibility that R. Moses's peshat teachings may have been indebted to the linguistic clarifications of Andalusian Jewish philologists, such as Jonah Ibn Janah.

Medieval Jewish Legends on the Decline of the Babylonian Centre and the Primacy of Other Geographical Centres

This chapter recounts how the Babylonian centre of Jewish study gradually went into decline and Jewish centres in Christian Europe grew stronger in France, Germany, Spain, and Provence during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It demonstrates the ways Jews sought reasons to extol the virtues of their own locale, which was customary in contemporaneous Christian societies. It also describes the various centres in Christian Europe that sought to establish a connection to the charismatic Charlemagne, cities, and countries in the Islamic world, which produced literatures praising their region. The chapter describes the eleventh-century legends and folk tales that extol the virtues of different Jewish centres in Europe set against the backdrop of the decline of the Babylonian centre following the death of R. Hai Gaon. It examines the rivalry between Spain and Ashkenaz as each centre strived to outdo the other.

Mediterranean Regionalism in Hebrew Panegyric Poetry

This chapter discusses the Hebrew panegyric corpus as a recognized, yet under-appreciated, resource for studying Jewish culture in the medieval Mediterranean. It considers the anathema to the tastes of scholars of Jewish literature and ungenerous source for scholars of Jewish history. It also describes Hebrew panegyrics that have largely been discounted as mere sycophantic dedications which occasionally yield titbits of factual data. The chapter looks at surviving Hebrew panegyrics that illuminate medieval Mediterranean Jews' most essential notions of group cohesion, human virtue, leadership, and politics. It includes Hebrew panegyrics that were composed for men who held transregional positions of power for their appointees and supporters in satellite communities.