Pat 'akum in Medieval France and Germany.

Abstract

This paper traces the development of the laws of pat ‘akum, the rabbinic prohibition on Gentile bread, in medieval Ashkenaz from the beginning of the eleventh century through the end of the Tosafist period. Compliance with this prohibition, originally instituted as an added barrier against intermarriage, became increasingly more difficult in a period when Jewish bread was generally unavailable. The story of pat ‘akum is that of an ever expanding allowance in both common practice and halakhic theory. In this paper, the course of the heter is followed first in Germany and then in France. Though German and French Jewry constituted essentially one community, they show marked differences with regard to pat ‘akum. In Germany, the radical allowance was reached only through a progressive development; in France, the prohbition seems never to have been widely observed.