How Far was Krochmal Influenced by the Gaon Sherira ben Hanina in his Description of the Development of Oral Torah?
How Far was Krochmal Influenced by the Gaon Sherira ben Hanina in his Description of the Development of Oral Torah?
This chapter concerns Nahman Krochmal (1785–1840), a key figure in the development of Jewish spirituality in central and eastern Europe. It examines the extent to which Krochmal’s writings were influenced by the gaon of Pumbedita in Babylonia, Sherira (c.906–1006). Krochmal summed up his spiritual life and work in his incomplete study, Moreh nevukhei hazeman (‘guide of the perplexed of the time’). Its central theme is the Oral Torah, one of the pillars of rabbinic Judaism. In Krochmal’s time the Oral Torah was subjected to heavy criticism. But almost 850 years before Krochmal’s Moreh nevukhei hazeman, Sherira wrote a letter as a response to a series of questions concerning the formation of the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Talmuds, etc., posed to him by Jacob ben Nissim on behalf of the holy community of Kairouan in North Africa.
Keywords: Nahman Krochmal, rabbinic Judaism, Oral Torah, Sherira, Moreh nevukhei hazeman, Jewish spirituality
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