Catastrophe and Halakhic Creativity
Catastrophe and Halakhic Creativity
Ashkenaz—1096, 1242, 1306, and 1298
This chapter examines the author's essay which surveys the Franco-German Tosafists, titled “Catastrophe and Halakhic Creativity.” The study assumed the form that it did as the author sought to rectify a growing misconception that the massacres of the First Crusade precipitated an intellectual crisis. The events of 1096 were certainly traumatic; psychological shock, however, is not the same as intellectual decline or stagnation. The author found the notion of either of these consequences without foundation, indeed, contrary to everything known about the tosafist movement of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and its immortal achievements. The essay then explores the famous tosafist movement. To broaden the scope of the study, it addresses four crises of the Ashkenazic community in the high Middle Ages and their significance in its intellectual history.
Keywords: Franco-German Tosafists, halakhic creativity, First Crusade, intellectual crisis, tosafist movement, Ashkenazic community, intellectual history
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