Progress and Tradition in Medieval Ashkenaz

Abstract

Intellectual historians have identified differing attitudes toward the notion of progress among the churchmen of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in western Europe. The present study aims to trace the views of rabbinic figures in medieval Ashkenaz during this period. Tosafists such as Isaiah di Trani, Samson of Sens, and Asher b. Yehiel felt that subsequent teachers and decisors could progress beyond the formulations and rulings of their predecessors, while Rashi and Rashbam believed that progress within the post-Talmudic period, at least with respect to legal rulings, was virtually impossible. At the same time, there was a consensus that the spirituality of earlier generations was greater, and that certain prerogatives in ritual matters which were accepted in the earlier period were no longer valid. As in the Christian world, those who were partisans of progress were criticized by others for their stance. Within the Sefardic orbit, Maimonides was virtually alone in his view that the "decline of the generations" was not an inexorable process. Those Tosafists who agreed with this position were his nearest contemporary allies. The application of dialectic by the Tosafists to justify existing Ashkenazic practices that appeared to be contrary to Talmudic law parallels the activities of canon lawyers, as do their efforts to deal with new technologies. Even the more conservative group of Ashkenazic rabbinic thinkers looked upon the idea of newness itself quite favorably.