Rabbinic Conceptions of Marriage and Matchmaking in Christian Europe

Abstract

recent studies have traced the parameters of matchmaking in medieval European Jewish society, seeking as well to identiy attitudes toward marriage more broadly in both the northern and southern regions (ashkenaz and sepharad).1 Based on the many texts that have been published or are still in manuscript, it is possible to propose an overarching theory that accounts for diferences between the two regions, encompassing both those that have been noted heretofore and others that have not yet received attention. i irst present the diferences and ampliy them, and then suggest some larger perspectives to clariy points of divergence.2 Comparisons between these leading Jewish cultural entities have long been seen as illuminating, especially given the increasing contacts between ashkenaz and sepharad in the period under discussion.