German Pietism In Northern France: The Case Of R. Isaac Of Corbeil

Abstract

The three major figures of German Pietism (Hasidut Ashkenaz), R. Samuel he-Hasid, his son R. Judah he-Hasid (d. 1217), and R. Judah's student R. Eleazar of Worms (d. ca. 1230), were all descended from the Qalonymides, one of the leading families of pre-Crusade Ashkenaz. The sentiments expressed in the writings of Hasidei Ashkenaz concerning the importance of good lineage (yihus) in marriage, and in other societal contexts, undoubtedly stemmed from the fact that the Pietists were themselves German bluebloods. Moreover, the Pietists wished to reassert a number of religious and intellectual values of pre-Crusade Germany. in the face of increasing domination by the tosafist schools of northern France. Aspects of this initiative include the strong critique which Hasidei Ashkenaz leveled against the use of unbridled dialectic and the concomitant value placed on talmudic study which would yield practical legal conclusions, the Pietists' uncompromising insistence on certain textual variants and distinctive practices in prayer, and their related cultivation of liturgical poetry. 1