- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration and Conventions Used in the Text
- Introduction
-
Chapter One Agobard of Lyons, Megillat Aḥima’ats, and the Babylonian Orientation of Early Ashkenaz -
Chapter Two Dialectics, Scholasticism, and the Origin of the Tosafot -
Chapter Three Minhag Ashkenaz ha-Kadmon: An Assessment -
Chapter Four The Authority of the Babylonian Talmud and the Use of Biblical Verses and Aggadah in Early Ashkenaz -
Chapter Five On the Use of Aggadah by the Tosafists: A Response to I. M. Ta-Shma -
Chapter Six Characterizing Medieval Talmudists: A Case Study -
Chapter Seven Communications and the Palestinian Origins of Ashkenaz -
Chapter Eight The Palestinian Orientation of the Ashkenazic Community and Some Suggested Ground Rules for the Writing of Halakhic History -
Chapter Nine The ‘Third Yeshivah of Bavel’ and the Cultural Origins of Ashkenaz—A Proposal - A Response to David Berger
- Introduction
-
Chapter Ten Between Cross and Crescent -
Chapter Eleven Halakhah, Hermeneutics, and Martyrdom in Ashkenaz -
Chapter Twelve Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric -
Chapter Thirteen Responses to Critiques of ‘Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric’ -
Chapter Fourteen Classification of Mishneh Torah: Problems Real and Imaginary -
Chapter Fifteen Mishneh Torah: Polemic and Art - Bibliography of Manuscripts
- Source Acknowledgments
- Index of Names
- Index of Places
- Index of Subjects
Mishneh Torah: Polemic and Art
Mishneh Torah: Polemic and Art
- Chapter:
- (p.378) Chapter Fifteen Mishneh Torah: Polemic and Art
- Source:
- Collected Essays: v. 2
- Author(s):
Haym Soloveitchik
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
This chapter suggests solutions to the problems raised in the previous chapter. It also attempts to show whether its resolution yields any deeper insights into the nature of Mishneh Torah. It first discusses the Karaite challenge. In doing so, the chapter argues for an anti-Karaite dimension in the structure of ‘Hilkhot Shabbat’. It contends that this other dimension reveals afresh the nature of Mishneh Torah. The chapter then turns to a new perspective on Mishneh Torah by taking a detour — moving to a different vantage point and returning only later to the initial point of departure. The Ba'alei ha-Tosafot generally ignored Maimonides just as they ignored the developments in Provence. Like most revolutionaries, they operated on the assumption that neither the past, in the form of the Geonim, nor the present, in the shape of non-Tosafists, had much to teach them, nor could they help them solve the new problems which they had uncovered.
Keywords: Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Karaites, Hilkhot Shabbat, Ba'alei ha-Tosafot, Sabbath
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration and Conventions Used in the Text
- Introduction
-
Chapter One Agobard of Lyons, Megillat Aḥima’ats, and the Babylonian Orientation of Early Ashkenaz -
Chapter Two Dialectics, Scholasticism, and the Origin of the Tosafot -
Chapter Three Minhag Ashkenaz ha-Kadmon: An Assessment -
Chapter Four The Authority of the Babylonian Talmud and the Use of Biblical Verses and Aggadah in Early Ashkenaz -
Chapter Five On the Use of Aggadah by the Tosafists: A Response to I. M. Ta-Shma -
Chapter Six Characterizing Medieval Talmudists: A Case Study -
Chapter Seven Communications and the Palestinian Origins of Ashkenaz -
Chapter Eight The Palestinian Orientation of the Ashkenazic Community and Some Suggested Ground Rules for the Writing of Halakhic History -
Chapter Nine The ‘Third Yeshivah of Bavel’ and the Cultural Origins of Ashkenaz—A Proposal - A Response to David Berger
- Introduction
-
Chapter Ten Between Cross and Crescent -
Chapter Eleven Halakhah, Hermeneutics, and Martyrdom in Ashkenaz -
Chapter Twelve Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric -
Chapter Thirteen Responses to Critiques of ‘Maimonides’ Iggeret ha-Shemad: Law and Rhetoric’ -
Chapter Fourteen Classification of Mishneh Torah: Problems Real and Imaginary -
Chapter Fifteen Mishneh Torah: Polemic and Art - Bibliography of Manuscripts
- Source Acknowledgments
- Index of Names
- Index of Places
- Index of Subjects
