The Role of the Tosafists in Jewish-Christian Polemics

Abstract

Modern scholarship has long recognized that the northern French pashṭanim, those biblical commentators inclined toward literal or simple (peshaṭ) exegesis, were among the most active (literary) polemicists in the northern European (Ashkenazic) milieu during the High Middle Ages.¹ Although the extent of Rashi’s interest in refuting Christian exegesis and intentions has been debated (and may in fact have been relatively small)², Joseph Qara, Samuel b. Meir (Rashbam, d. c.1160), and Joseph b. Isaac Bekhor Shor of Orleans (d. c.1190) were involved in this area during the twelfth century³, as were Joseph ha-Meqanne (“the zealous one”) and his father, Nathan Official...