Jewish Education and Society in the High Middle Ages

Ephraim Kanarfogel

• Publisher: Wayne State University Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9780814333686
• eBook ISBN: 9780814336533
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Jewish Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Paperback edition of a favorite text on the literary creativity and communal involvement in the production of the Tosafist corpus.

The Jews of northern France, Germany, and England, known collectively as Ashkenazic Jewry, have commanded the attention of scholars since the beginnings of modern Jewish historiography. Over the past century, historians have produced significant studies about Jewish society in medieval Ashkenaz that have revealed them as a well-organized, creative, and steadfast community. Indeed, the Franco-Russian Jewry withstood a variety of physical, political, and religious attacks in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to produce an impressive corpus of Talmudic and halakhic compositions, known collectively as Tosafot, that revolutionized the study of rabbinic literature.

Although the literary creativity of the Tosafists has been documented and analyzed, and the scope and policies of communal government in Ashkenaz have been fixed and compared, no sustained attempt has been made to integrate these crucial dimensions. Jewish Education and Society in the High Middle Ages considers these relationships by examining the degree of communal involvement in the educational process, as well as the economic theories and communal structures that affected the process from the most elementary level to the production of the Tosafist corpus. By drawing parallels and highlighting differences to pre-Crusade Ashkenaz, the period following the Black Death, Spanish and Provençal Jewish society, and general medieval society, Ephraim Kanarfogel creates an insightful and compelling portrait of Ashkenazic society.

Available in paperback for the first time with a new preface included, Jewish Education and Society in the High Middle Ages will be a welcome addition to the libraries of Jewish studies scholars and students of medieval religious literature.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface Preface to the Paperback Edition
• Preface Preface to the Hardcover Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. The Structure of Elementary Education in Ashkenaz
• Chapter 2. Attitudes toward Childhood and the Educational Process
• Chapter 3. The Economics of Higher Education
• Chapter 4. The Relationship between the Academy and the Community
• Chapter 5. The Intellectual Milieu of the Tosafist Academies
• Chapter 6. Educational Theory and Practice in the Teachings of the German Pietists
• Appendix A: The Origin and Orientation of Sefer Huqqei ha-Torah
• Appendix B: The Ashkenazic Educational Initiation Ceremony
• Notes
• Index