Creativity and Tradition: Studies in Medieval Rabbinic Scholarship, Literature and Thought »

Israel Ta-Shma is Professor Emeritus at The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

This volume brings together sixteen of Professor Israel M. Ta-Shma's outstanding studies that were originally written in English, four of which are being published here for the first time. Set in Germany, northern France, Italy, Poland, and Spain, these essays focus on leading rabbinic scholars and their writings, as well as important issues of Jewish intellectual history, such as the nature of halakhah and aggadah, kabbalah and spirituality, childhood and popular religion. The richness of these studies is seen not only in their meticulous and innovative textual scholarship but also in the fascinating insights and unanticipated connections that typify all of Professor Ta-Shma's published work.

Jewish Book World

The late Israel Ta-Shma was a prolific and gifted writer. He fused a profound knowledge of Jewish legal sources with the latest theories in European history, plumbing the arcane depths of medieval Hebrew manuscripts and obscure historical periods with an ease that allows the reader to enjoy the excitement of the chase. This volume gathers sixteen of his English articles, most of which appeared over the course of the past two decades. For the interested layman, it is an opportunity to discover the richness of Jewish intellectual history during the “Dark Ages.”

Foreword

Preface

Ashkenazi Jewry in the Eleventh Century: Life and Literature

On the History of the Jews in Twelfth and Thirteenth-Century Poland

La Cultura Religiosa—The Chain of Tradition: South-Italian Rabbinic Tradition in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

The Library of the French Sages

Halakhah and Reality: The Tosafist Experience

Halakhah, Reality, and the Concept of Historical Change

Between East and West: R. Asher B. Yehiel and his son R. Jacob

Children in Medieval Germanic Jewry: A Perspective on Aries from Jewish Sources

The Law in Accordance with the Later Authority Hilkheta Ke-Vatra'Ei: Historical Observations on a Legal Rule

Early Modern Trends in Late West-European Talmud Commentary and their Influence on Popular Talmud Studies in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

The Acceptance of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah in Italy

The Penetration of Ashkenazi Custom-Law and Folklore in the Zohar: The Phenomenon and its Historical Origin

The "Open" Book in Medieval Hebrew Literature: The Problem of Authorized Editions

The Study of Aggadah and its Interpretation in Early Rabbinic Literature

Rabbi Jonah Gerondi: Spirituality and Leadership

Professor Katz on Halakhah and Kabbalah