The Popularization of Jewish Legal and Customary Literature in Germanic Lands during the Thirteenth Century

Abstract

Coming on the heels of the eleventh century. during which the rabbinic literature produced by the leading Ashkenazic talmudic academies at Mainz and Worms was generally brief and oflen fragmentary, owing both to the design of its authors and the disruptions caused by the First Crusade,1 the mid-twelflh century and onward witnessed a veritable explosion of rabbinic literature throughout the rapidly rebuilt Rhineland center, "'hich came to include rabbinic scholars in Speyer, Bonn and Cologne as well. This is also the case for the Jewish legal literature produced in Regensburg, as well as the literary productivity of the newly expanded center in northeast France (in the Champagne region. "'here Rashi. the most pro Ii fie medieval Jewish commentator on the Bible and the Talmud, died in Troyes in 11 OS), and moving westward to the Isle de France, the royal realm, and beyond. (from Introduction)