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Sometime during the second half of the thirteenth century, Isaac of Corbeil composed a list of the commandments relevant for Jews living in medieval times and divided it into seven parts. The division into seven was meant to facilitate the recitation of a daily portion of commandments, so that the entire list would be recited each week by all male members of the Jewish community. Isaac is remembered today as being the author of the Semak, but his forgotten list of commandments and its liturgical function were equally important to him. In this study, Galinsky will demonstrate the centrality of the list of commandments for Isaac; explain its religious import, theological underpinning, and legal grounding; and reveal possible influences on its formation. In this exploration, intent, even without any corresponding action and follow-through, plays a significant role. However, to better appreciate what Isaac set out to accomplish, he will begin by describing the thirteenth-century context of his activity.
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SOMETIME DURING THE SECOND HALF of the thirteenth century, Isaac of Corbeil composed a list of the commandments relevant for Jews living in medieval times and divided it into seven parts.! The division into seven was meant to facilitate the recitation of a daily portion of commandments, so that the entire list would be recited each week by all male members of the Jewish community. As we shall see below, Isaac hoped that through this recitation he could improve the religiosity of French Jewry. Later Isaac wrote a commentary to the list of commandments which became his legal handbook 'Amude golah (Pillars of exile), otherwise known as Sefer mitsvot katan or by its abbreviation Semak.2 In most manuscripts, and in all printed editions,' the original seven-part list of commandments was copied at the beginning of the Semak, where it also served as a table of contents.
It is hard to gauge the circulation of the list of commandments as an independent work; a mere few pages in length, the chances of its survival from the Middle Ages were small. The Semak, however, which opened with the list, was one of the most copied works in Ashkenaz in medieval times. It seems fair to say that the work was a best seller in the medieval Ashkenazic book world.4
The content of the list is very basic; it generally cites the title of the commandment and its biblical or rabbinic source, and at times adds some amplifications or even some legal details. However, it rarely includes lengthy legal discussion related to its implementation. Since the list was meant to be recited ritually, as an act of devotion to be completed weekly, brevity was crucial.
The following examples, chosen from the beginning and the middle, demonstrate the nature of the list:5
1 To know that the one who created the heavens and earth alone rules above, below, and in the four directions, as it is written: "I am the Lord your God, etc." and "You shall know today and instill upon your hearts that the Lord is God in the heavens above and the earth below-there is none other"-this includes the air meaning, the space between heaven and earth].
4 To fear the Holy One, blessed be he, as it is written: "Fear the Lord." Our sages expounded "the" to include the scholars.
156 To cover the blood of fowl and wild animals with dirt, as it is written: "One who hunts or traps wild game or fowl, it may be consumed, but the blood must be spilled and covered with dirt."
157 To circumcise his son, as it is written: "Abraham circumcised his son Isaac."
Isaac is remembered today as being the author of the Semak, but his forgotten list of commandments and its liturgical function were equally important to him. In this study, I will demonstrate the centrality of the list of commandments for Isaac; explain its religious import, theological underpinning, and legal grounding; and reveal possible influences on its formation. In this exploration, intent, even without any corresponding action and followthrough, plays a significant role. However, to better appreciate what Isaac set out to accomplish, I will begin by describing the thirteenth-century context of his activity.
THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF ISAAC'S LITERARY ACTIVITY
Isaac's literary activity, especially his liturgical innovation, is akin to the thirteenth-century emphasis on pastoral care among Christian clerics. During this time, there was a growing concern in the Church for the religious welfare of all Christians.® This concern evolved into new developments in policy, reflected in the educational reforms of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) in the vigorous mendicant preaching, officially sanctioned by Pope Innocent III, that originated at this time and in the involvement of local clerics in educating the populace." The newfound emphasis on educating the laity led to a proliferation of preaching aids, handbooks, confession manuals, and more, from the thirteenth century onward. Most of these works were written to educate the clergy, but others, especially those written in the vernacular, were meant to be read directly by the laity.8
Although there was no similar outpouring of materials from Jewish circles at this time, the preaching and literary activities of Moses of Coucy and Jonah Gerondi, who were both educated in northern France and active during the first half of the century, display similar characteristics to the development described above.9 Moreover, toward the end of the thirteenth century and throughout the fourteenth, especially in Christian Spain, there is a major increase of writing within the Jewish community geared toward educating the less learned segments of the population.10 I suggest that Isaac of Corbeil's writings, which sought to effect a greater awareness of the commandments- including both his liturgical initiative, which we will be studying, and his accessible legal handbook, Semak-can and should be viewed against the backdrop of this broader thirteenth-century European trend.
ISAAC'S LITURGICAL INNOVATION
Two main texts supply us with our knowledge about Isaac's liturgical initiative. The first is a letter in which he addresses the Jewish communities in France, a letter he also intended to send to Germany. The second is an oral report transcribed by a visiting scholar, one Isaac of Strasbourg, who met Isaac of Corbeil's students in Corbeil.11
Isaac's letter to the Jewish communities of France (and Germany) opens with his plan and an explanation of his motivation.!? Isaac was well aware of the innovative quality of his initiative, and knew that to convince the leaders to implement it, he needed to explain its purpose. In the opening sentences, Isaac attempts to lay out the justification:13
Since, owing to our sins, the Torah is being forgotten,14 and I feared that many15 will not be well versed in the explanation of the commandments that obligate us. I have therefore recorded those commandments which we are obligated [to observe] in these times in seven pillars, corresponding to the seven days of the week, and I ask that each person recite one pillar every day so that he may merit reward.16
Isaac expresses concern about the widespread lack of knowledge of the law and therefore suggests that all Jews, or at least all Jewish men, recite (likro) a pillar worth of commandments each day from his list, so that the basic religious obligations would become known to all, even if the masses would not become familiar with the details of the law from reciting his list. It is worth noting that although Isaac did not include women in his ordinance, he did believe that, ideally, they too should recite the commandments relevant to them.17
In the next section of his letter, Isaac presents his main argument for the need to comply with his ordinance:
For there are many commandments that a person is not obligated to perform until the opportunity presents itself; however, should he read them and resolve in his heart to observe them, the Holy One, blessed be he,18 as cribes [the observance of the commandments] to him as though he had performed them, and this carries great reward. In addition, sometimes a commandment [that is unfamiliar] presents itself and the person does not know how to observe it. Accordingly, every person must put it to heart-for if not now, when?!
Isaac argues that although Jews are obligated to observe all the details of halakhah, there is also merit in accepting God's dictates in one's heart, since resolve and commitment to observe mitzvot are also worthy of heavenly reward." He applies this teaching to two distinct scenarios, to commandments that a person does not have opportunity to perform, since it is relevant only to a specific situation, and to commandments that the person does not know how to observe practically.
In formulating this idea, Isaac alludes to the talmudic passage in bKid 40a, "A good thought-the Holy One, blessed be he, links to an action."20 The text in Kidushin reads:
[When one has] a good thought-the Holy One, blessed be he, links it to an action, as it is written: "Then those that feared the Lord spoke one with another: and the Lord listened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for those that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name" (Mal 3.16). Now, what is the meaning of "that thought upon his name"? Rav Assi said: Even if one thinks of performing a precept but is prevented, against his will, from doing so [ve-ne'enas], the verse ascribes him [merit] as though he has performed it.
Isaac apparently reads Rav Assi's phrase ve-ne'enas as a broad principle according to which intent and commitment to perform a commandment are worthy and deserving of reward in their own right. However, a more straight forward understanding of Rav Assi's teaching is that some minimal physical effort is needed, as his teaching is limited to situations where the factors that prevented the realization of the mitzvah were entirely outside of the person's control, such as in the case of a natural calamity.21 Nevertheless, Isaac's understanding of this teaching is possible, but it is not the simple one.22
The above two passages from Isaac of Corbeil's letter are reformulated in the student's report that was transcribed by the Isaac of Strasbourg mentioned above.23 In this reformulation, some of the ambiguous aspects of Isaac's letter are made explicit, including the citation from Kidushin. However, as we shall see below, there are also some differences between the two texts. For example, according to the student's report, the original initiative to compose a list of commandments for liturgical purposes was not solely Isaac's but was made in collaboration with other rabbinic colleagues.
The report begins with what seems to be a paraphrasing and expansion of Isaac's letter. It explains the thought process that led Isaac and his colleagues to their initiative of transcribing the relevant commandments and calling for their daily recitation:
He and his colleagues realized that there are some commandments [written in the Torah]24 that a person will never have the opportunity to observe, but if one were to see them written before him [in a book]25 he would at least give thought to observing them. And our rabbis of blessed memory said that the Holy One, blessed be he, attributes [merit] to one's intentions as if he has performed the deed. They therefore recorded all the precepts that apply outside the Land of Israel, and divided them into seven parts, so that a person may recite one part each day.26
Presenting the commandments in written form would enable their daily recitation, which in turn would create awareness and commitment. Moreover, in contrast to the letter, the passage from Kidushin is cited explicitly.
The report from Corbeil then adds a fascinating new piece of information relating to the reward and benefit promised to those who follow his ordinance:
And they fasted for several days to ensure that a person should receive reward when he reads the daily portion [of commandments], as though reading from the book of Psalms.27
Apparently, Isaac and his colleagues were not content with their expansive reading of the talmudic text in Kidushin; they decided to take the extreme measure of fasting for several days28 to ensure the divine reward they promised in return would at least be equal to the reciting of Psalms."29
ISAAC'S AUTHORIAL COLOPHON AND HIS STUDENT'S EXHORTATION
The centrality of this liturgical innovation for Isaac of Corbeil may be better appreciated in light of two other texts: the author's own colophon to Semak and the effort of his student Solomon ben Solomon to reinforce the legal grounding and rationale of his teacher's initiative.
At the end of his legal handbook, Semak, Isaac highlights the seemingly less important list of commandments instead of focusing on the more learned work. The colophon states:30
Blessed is my creator, who has granted me the merit to finish-
May he also grant me the merit to observe and fulfill, [to study and teach]31 all that has been said.
And may it also be his will that it be pleasant, like a bundle of myrrh, For each individual Jew [al kol ish Yisra'el], to say each and every day, its allotted section,32
So that he shall prosper.33
In the first stanza, Isaac thanks God for facilitating the completion of his work. He then appeals to God for the merit to observe the laws. In most manuscripts he alludes to his role as a teacher of the laws summarized in the book as well. However, in the second and central stanza, he relates to the list of commandments. Here Isaac beseeches that God be pleased by the practice of the daily recitation of the allotted section (or pillar) of commandments, and that those who observe the practice shall receive the blessing of goodness and success in return. These words echo Isaac's letter to the communities described above.34
Based on the colophon above, it seems that, in Isaac's eyes, the liturgical ordinance of reciting the commandments was as significant as his legal work, if not more. Despite its relatively small size (in comparison to the commentary) and seemingly simple content, the liturgical recitation was deeply treasured by the author. It was his aspiration to promote piety through creating access to the mitzvot. Isaac intended, by means of this ritual innovation, to increase awareness of religious obligations incumbent upon all Jews.
The significance of this initiative for Isaac and his students is also apparent from an addition by Solomon ben Solomon. As described in the appendix below, this addition can be found appended to some of the early manuscripts of the work that included Isaac's letter to the Jewish communities and other related material as well. In his text Solomon encourages his fellow Jews-and especially Isaac's own students-to follow his teacher's instruction and recite the list of commandments daily. In this way Solomon supported his teacher.
Solomon's text opens with encouragement and continues with his own attempt to reinforce Isaac's argument:35
And this is true. It is appropriate for all who fear and tremble before the word of God to observe and strengthen his words-and his students more than anyone, to strengthen and establish that they are true, as it is written [Prov 1.5] "A wise man will hear, and add to their learning." For this is a great thing, the words of a prophet, our teacher, our master, the pious one [...] For it is true that commitment through reading should be considered as though it were an action, and the truth is with him.
In the opening paragraph he exhorts all learned people, but especially Isaac's students, to substantiate the legal foundation for the idea that recitation of and commitment to the commandments are a worthy cause in itself, "For this is a great lesson |. . .] that commitment through reading should be considered as though it were an action." After this introduction, Solomon brings his own proofs for the merits of his teacher's enactment.36
In addition to demonstrating a student's devotion to his teacher's cherished innovation, this source also adds two significant insights. The first relates to the reception of Isaac's ordinance. Apparently, in Solomon's time the liturgical initiative was not yet widespread; otherwise, he would not have felt the need to seek out evidence for the veracity of its premise. This inference is also reinforced by a passage found in the student's report, transcribed by Isaac of Strasbourg. There it is related how French scholars copied the list into their prayer books, and how they would recite the list in place of psalms and other supplications:
And since the great ones37 of France were aware of his modesty and piety, they wrote these commandments in their prayer books, to be recited daily [according to his instruction],38 in place of supplications and in place of the recital from the book of Psalms.
Since the report only mentions the acceptance of the practice by the elite of France, one infers that it was not widespread among the broader Jewish community.
The second conclusion relates to Solomon's need to reinforce the legal grounding of Isaac's initiative. Since Isaac himself alluded to the source in Kidushin in his letter, and it was further explicated in the student's report, presumably Solomon was aware of the text but nevertheless still felt the need to bolster his teacher's innovation. Perhaps this indicates some reservations with Isaac's understanding of the talmudic passage.
THE MEDIEVAL CONTEXT AND KIDUSHIN 40A: ABELARD, BEREKHIAH, AND SEFER HASIDIM
The medieval Christian context is an important background for understanding Isaac's thought. The emphasis on intent as determining morality became widespread in the twelfth century and was further intensified in the thirteenth.39 This approach, which is generally associated with the philosophy of Abelard, has earlier roots, with implications relating to good deeds as well as sins.40 Even if Isaac did not have access to any Latin scholarship, he may very well have absorbed these ideas from the learned Christians with whom he interacted.41
More meaningful, however is the internal evidence that such notions were already in circulation within Jewish intellectual and pietistic circles during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries-before Isaac's time. The earliest source I could identify by a French scholar is the theological writing of Berekhiah ha-Nakdan, who was active in southern and northern France in the late twelfth century and wrote theological and scientific works in Hebrew.42 In his works, he transmitted non-talmudic general knowledge from scholars in other Jewish centers such as Spain and southern France, as well as from Christian scholars.43 His theological writings were heavily influenced by Saadiah Gaon, Bahya Ibn Pakuda, and Abraham Ibn Ezra.44 He can be considered an important conduit for the diffusion of theological writing in northern France.45
In his theological work, Ha-matsref (The refiner), section 3 is devoted to the significance of the "heart" in the service of God (and was heavily influenced by the writings of Ibn Ezra).46 There, Berekhiah also discusses the centrality of intention and commitment in the context of observing commandments. He establishes the primacy of the heart based on the order of the Decalogue, which begins with commandments relating to the heart. Then (also following Ibn Ezra), he divides all of God's commandments into three categories, while focusing on the heart:47
It was not concealed from the eyes of the wise that the heart's thoughts are the fundamental principle of every action performed, whether good or evil. And for this reason, the first of the Ten Commandments begins with the words: "I am the Lord thy God" [Ex 20.2], so that it might be bound within our hearts that the Lord of Being is the God who liberated us from Egypt,48 while the second commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods beside me" prohibits association [shituf] [of God with any other divine being], like of those of whom it is written, "They feared the Lord, and served their own gods" [2 Kgs 17.33]. In the same manner our sages observed: "Heaven demands thy heart." Therefore, the commandments include three paths: The first is fealty of the heart; the second is through the mouth; and the third is through actions. And this is the meaning of the verse "in thy mouth and in thy heart to observe it" [Dt 30.14].49
After bringing examples of commandments included in the first category, the author then cites the talmudic passage in bKid 40a to prove the primacy of the heart even in commandments that fall into the two other categories:
Our sages derived from the verse ". . . for those that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name" [Mal 3.16] that if one thought of performing a precept but is prevented, against his will, [from fulfilling itl-it is nonetheless ascribed to him as though he has performed it. They also said: He who performs a commandment without the intention of doing the will of Heaven will not receive a reward for his action.50
From the latter half of the twelfth century onward, there is an emphasis in Jewish sources on intent with regard to observing God's commandments, and the passage in bKid 40a played an important role in this discussion.
Another pertinent Ashkenazic source that demonstrates the important religious role of the internal world is reflected in the teachings of pi ous scholars active during the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, primarily in Regensburg.51 These pious scholars, known as Haside Ashkenaz, include Samuel the Pious, his son Judah, Eleazar of Worms, and their students, developed a unique religious approach expressed in areas of theology, mysticism, prayer, and more. They had an expansive view of the law ("the will of the creator") and viewed repentance as a penance.52 They also took a strong interest in improving piety and religiosity among simple Jews.53 For our purposes, it bears noting that they emphasized the centrality of intent in prayer.
Regarding these medieval Hasidim, Haym Soloveitchik wrote as follows: "As the intuitive religious perception of the Hasidim was interior, they tended to look less upon the deed itself, as law by its nature must, than upon the thoughts and feelings that lay behind it."54 Although Isaac did not accept all the ideals and beliefs of the Hasidim,> he did share their belief that striving for religious piety was not limited to normative law.56 Isaac's expansion of the passage in Kidushin indicates his emphasis on the internal spiritual world, in a similar vein to these Hasidim.
A passage from the opening section of Sefer Hasidim (attributed to Samuel the Pious, Judah's father) explicitly expresses this idea.57 The pas sage, which has been well researched,58 begins in the fourth paragraph and ends in the sixth, and is devoted to an exemplum and its lesson:
There was a shepherd who did not know how to pray. Every day he would say: Master of the World, let it be known to you that if you owned cattle, and would trust them to my care-for everyone else I would watch for hire, but for you, I would watch [your cattle] for free, because I love you.59
The tale continues with the appearance of a scholar, who is appalled by the simpleton's prayer and proceeds to teach the shepherd normative prayer. The shepherd, who understood that he was not praying properly but was unable to learn the proper way to pray, decided to stop praying altogether. The story ends with the scholar receiving the following divine communication:
Tell him [the shepherd] that he should pray as he did in the past, before you came to him, and should you refuse to tell him so-know that evil will befall you-for you have stolen from me someone from the world to come.60
The scholar returned to the shepherd and instructed him to resume his old prayer custom. Scholars noted the similarities between this story and similar exempla in various other religious cultures. However, for our purpose, the importance of the story lies in the religious lesson formulated by the author both in the prologue and the coda. The printed edition of the prologue reads,61 "Any commandment that a person is able to perform- he must; however, if he is unable to observe it, he should [at least] think about performing it."62 Similarly, to conclude the story, the author repeats: So in this case [of the shepherd] there was no Torah, and no [properly performed] religious acts-however he thought to do good, and he accomplished something great. "God seeks that which is in the heart,"63 therefore, a person should think proper thoughts for [as a means toward serving] God.64
The emphasis on the heart and the insistence on the intrinsic value of intent are both captured by the exemplum and made explicit through the pietistic teaching.
What makes this pietistic source even more intriguing regarding our exploration of Isaac's emphasis on the internal world is its relationship to the talmudic passage found in Kidushin. Although this talmudic source does not appear in the printed edition, it is mentioned in a gloss of the manuscript text.
THE EVIDENCE OF THE GLOSS ON THE SEFER HASIDIM PASSAGE
An examination of the manuscript evidence of the prologue shows that the printed version has been partially corrected according to the appended glosses found in the manuscript.65 Moreover, a comparison of the Parma Palatina manuscript Parm. 3280,66 which is the basis for the Wistenetzky edition, with MS JTS Boesky 45,67 shows that the Boesky manuscript preserved a more correct reading of the passage.
The Boesky manuscript (47) reads, "Anything a person cannot perform, and anything he is unable to obtain, he should think of doing."68 This is a coherent text. There are two reasons one may be prevented from performing a commandment: ignorance (as demonstrated in the story of the shepherd) or lacking necessary means. The reader is required only to infer that the context relates to performing the commandments. However, the uncorrected Parma manuscript reads: Anything a person can perform, and anything he is unable to obtain, he should think of doing.69 This text, of course, is illogical, and led the glossator to add words to clarify and correct the text, as seen in figure 1.
There is however, a third gloss in the margins, which the editor of the printed edition chose to omit. This gloss is also absent from the Boesky manuscript, indicating that its originality is questionable. Nevertheless, it is very relevant to this study; the gloss reads: "As it is written 'and that thought upon his name.'"70 The gloss cites the verse from Malachi (3.16), which was the source proof for the passage in bKidushin; in other words, in addition to Isaac of Corbeil, his students, and Berekhiah ha-Nakdan, this learned glossator of the Parma manuscript of Sefer Hasidim was also aware of the connection between the text in Kidushin and the significance of intent when there is no ability to perform an action.
The story of the ignorant shepherd illuminates Isaac of Corbeil's rationale for reciting his list of commandments. Isaac, like the author of Sefer Hasidim, believed that "God seeks that which is in the heart" and thus elevated the status of thought and intent, even absent actions. He implemented this concept by constructing a list of commandments that would serve as a devotional text for Jews to recite daily and internalize"71 Through recitation, every Jew-and perhaps most importantly, the ignorant, would commit to God's will as expressed in the commandments. Isaac believed there was religious significance to such commitment, even if the specific commandment was not performed-whether owing to absence of an opportunity to fulfill it, financial constraint, or even the lack of religious knowledge, such as the shepherd.72
CONCLUSION: BETWEEN JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN LAY PIETY
Despite the overall similarities involving the efforts of Jewish and Christian elite scholars in educating the broader community, it is also important to distinguish between the Jewish and Christian subject matter the leadership chose to impart.73 In their works devoted to the "care of the soul," the primary themes found in Christian writings were sin and confession, articles of faith, basic prayers, the Ten Commandments, works of mercy, the seven deadly sins, the seven principal virtues, and the seven sacraments.74 In stark contrast, Isaacs primary concern was that the Torah and its commandments should not be forgotten: "And I feared that many will not be well versed in the explanation of the commandments that obligate us." In other words, the content of his new liturgical composition was the obligatory commandments and their biblical source, not prayer, morality, or the divine, which were more central to Christian lay piety.75
This is particularly intriguing since according to the report by Isaac of Strasbourg, Isaac and his colleagues viewed the recitation of the list as equal to, and even more important than, the reciting of psalms, as described earlier.76 This effort nicely highlights the centrality of Torah study and knowledge of commandments within the Ashkenazic perception of religious piety.77 For Isaac and his colleagues, piety, even of the unlearned, needed to include some element relating to the law and could not to be limited to psalms, prayer, meditation, or devotion.
This focused study about one thirteenth-century scholar's attempt to improve the religiosity of his people, I believe, expresses nicely the entangled history of Jews and Christians during the Middle Ages. "Entanglement," write the editors of a recent volume, "implies complexity; the things being tangled can cross many times, becoming difficult or impossible to pull apart, but still remain distinct, as with two colors of thread or two types of plant.78 The case of Isaac of Corbeil's liturgical initiative, the centrality of "intent," and his wish to educate all demonstrate both the similarity and the uniqueness of each religious culture. To quote once again from the editor's introduction, "Entangled transmission is not a static, unidirectional movement of an idea from point A to point B but rather a complex process that has the potential to affect everyone involved, to be rejected, to transform the context into something wholly unrecognizable. The recipients, whether from one Jewish cultural stream to another or from one religious community to another, do not passively absorb knowledge, texts, or practices, but rather make a choice of what to integrate and how to adapt it to be meaningful in its new context."79
1. His listing, therefore, contained considerably fewer than the standard 613 commandments, as it did not include the commandments conditioned upon residing in the Land of Israel.
2. About this work, see Ingrid M. Kaufmann, Visual Aspects of Scribal Culture in Ashkenaz: Shaping the Small Book of Commandments (SeMaK) (Berlin, 2019); and my forthcoming study, The Making of a Medieval Bestseller: Rabbi Isaac of Corbeil's Pillars of Exile and Its Readers (Oxford).
3. The first two printings are from sixteenth-century Constantinople (ca. 1511-13) and Cremona (1556).
4. There are at least two hundred extant copies, most of them from Ashkenazic areas. See Kaufmann, Visual Aspects, 185-202.
5. The content of the list is based primarily on Nimes, BM 26; and Milano, Ambrosiana X 111 Sup. However, I numbered the commandments according to the standard Harpanes edition printed in Satu-Mare, Romania (1935). This is the edition that also appears in the Bar-Ilan Responsa database. All printed versions of the list (besides the earlier Constantinople printing, circa 1511) are based on the Cremona printing (1556), which is less accurate, as some of the additional content was edited out. I therefore relied on these manuscripts.
6. See for example Robert N. Swanson, Religion and Devotion in Europe c. 1215-1515 (Cambridge, 1995), 10-15.
7. For a recent nuanced description of these developments see Deeana Copeland Klepper, Pastoral Care and Community in Late Medieval Germany: Albert of Diessen's Mirror of Priests (Ithaca, N.Y., 2022), esp. 20-28. See, as well, Joseph Goering, William de Montibus (с. 1140-1213): The Schools and the Literature of Pastoral Care (Toronto, 1992), 58-99.
8. For a summary of this outpouring of literature, with an emphasis on works written from the thirteenth century onward, including those in the vernacular in England and France, see M. B. M. Boulton, ed., Literary Echoes of the Fourth Lateran Council in England and France, 1215-1405 (Toronto, 2019), esp. chs. 1-3. See, as well, Klepper, Pastoral Care, 20-53.
9. Judah D. Galinsky, "On Popular Halakhic Literature and the Jewish Reading Audience in Fourteenth-Century Spain," JOR 98.3 (2008): 305-27, esp. 310-12.
10. See Galinsky, "On Popular Halakhic Literature."
11. The bibliographic aspects of these unique texts are elaborated upon in the appendix of this study.
12. In contrast, the space in the letter allotted to his legal work is much smaller. He writes: "And also, the great [ha-gadol; "knowledgeable"] should not abstain from teaching one less knowledgeable [ha-katan]. I have therefore requested that you establish a blessing [i.e., a form of communal sanction] regarding this matter, so that we should all be united in a single band, and in this way the servant might gain favor from his Master [i.e., God], and whoever does more is praiseworthy-to study each day the commentary on two or three commandments each day, and the reward correlates with the effort."
13. Upon analyzing the textual witnesses for this letter, I concluded that the versions found in Paris, BnF héb. 382 and 389, are the most accurate and closest to the original. Paris, BnF héb. 389, is an Ashkenazic manuscript datable to the end of the thirteenth century, prior to 1297, probably in France; and Paris, BnF héb. 382, is an Italian manuscript datable to sometime during the fourteenth century.
14. The concept and phrase are talmudic; see bBB 21a. The context is also illuminating; see Marc С. Hirshman, The Stabilization of Rabbinic Culture, 100 CE- 350 CE: Texts on Education and Their Late Antique Context (New York, 2009), 83-88.
15. Rabim; thisis the reading in Paris, BnF héb. 382; Paris, BnF héb. 389; Hamburg, SUB Cod. Heb. 98; Oxford, Bodl. MS Opp. 342. However, Paris, BnF héb. 379; Oxford, Bodl. MS Mich. Add. 41; Vienna, ÓNB Cod. Hebr. 75 have the word ha-rabim, which would translate as "the multitudes," or "the masses." Parma, Palatina Parm. 2766 has a corrupted reading ha-rabanim-"the rabbis"!
16. Emphasis here and throughout this study are mine. The Hebrew phrase le-ma'an yitav lo is echoed in the author's colophon le-ma'an yahil tuvo, cited below. This phrase hints to various biblical verses, mainly from Deuteronomy, which promise reward in this world for fulfilling God's commandments (e.g., Deut 5.26, 12:25; Jer 7.23). Isaac may have also been influenced by a rabbinic teaching relating to Deut 22.7 that employs this phrase. The verse there relates specifically to the promise of reward for performing the commandment of sending away the mother bird before taking her young; however, the talmudic sages expanded this promise to include one who fulfills any of the commandments. See, for example, mHul 12.5 and Tanhuma, Ki tetse 2 (on Deut 6.2), ed. S. Buber (Vilna, 1885), 3:33-34This verse is interpreted differently by Moses b. Jacob of Coucy, Sefer mitsvot gadol, ed. E. Shlezinger, Mitsvot "aseh (Jerusalem, 1995), 14 (positive commandment #3); and Mitsvot lo" ta'aseh (Jerusalem, 1989), 309 (negative commandment #150). Below 1 explain how Isaac transformed the divine blessing for performing the commandments into reward for their recital.
17. This can be seen from one of the passages appended to Isaac's letter, possibly also added by Solomon, where it is reported that Isaac sent a separate letter related to women reading the list and studying his work of law. For the purpose of this study, it is "the reading" of the commandments that is important. He also wished that they learn his legal work, which is related to another aspect of his efforts to educate the people. The text below is based on the version found in Paris, BnF héb. 382: "And I also know that he wrote as well to tell the women [lomar la-nashim] the commandments that are practiced by them, the positive and negative ones like I wrote for the men. And he said that it will be of benefit to them, the reading [kri'ah], punctiliousness [dikduk], and study of them [the commandments], just as preoccupation with the Talmud is of benefit to men."
18. This is the version in Oxford, Bodl. MS Opp. 342, where "The Holy One, blessed be he" appears in the abbreviated form hkb"h. I believe this version is correct, since it correlates with the talmudic formulation, which was Isaac's inspiration. Other manuscript versions of Isaac's letter contain other readings. Paris, BnF héb. 382; Paris, BnF héb. 389; Paris, BnF héb. 379; and Oxford, Bodl. MS Mich. Add. 41 read, ha-kabalah, i.e., "the tradition" or possibly "their acceptance." Vienna, ONB Cod. Hebr. 75 and other manuscripts read, "the scriptures" (hakatuv). Despite the seemingly faulty reading in Paris, BnF héb. 382 and 389, there is a strong indication that this was the way Solomon, the original scribe, read the word. I hope to address this point elsewhere.
19. It is noteworthy that Isaac's plan is described in MS Nimes, Bibliotheque Seguier Municipale 26, which is one of the earliest copies of Semak, copied by a student of Peretz of Corbeil. It can dated between 1286 and 1293 based on fols. 27v and 591, where the scribe seemingly inserted a prayer for freeing the famous scholar Meir of Rothenburg from prison into Peretz's gloss, which would indicate a time between his imprisonment and his death, in other words, 1286-93. A scribal note that prefaces the list of commandments formulates the author's objectives accurately (fol. 2v): "These are the commandments that our teacher, Isaac b. Joseph, enacted [to be recited] each day of the seven days of the week, appropriately explained and in a clear language, so that the reader may read them quickly." The scribe's use of tiken, "enacted," indicates that he was aware of the author's attempts to institute the daily recitation of the commandments: the list of commandments was meant to serve as a liturgical text, which would be recited daily by all and completed on a weekly basis.
20. This is the rendition in the talmudic manuscripts, with God's name abbreviated as hkb"h (...). However, the standard printed edition of the Talmud omits this abbreviation.
21. For a similar difference of opinion between two famous scholars, Abraham Ibn Ezra and Judah ha-Levi, without any resort to the passage in bKidushin, see Uriel Simon, Abraham ibn Ezra: A Portrait of a Commentator (Hebrew; Ramat Gan, 2021), 30-33.
22. For similar talmudic sources, see David Levine, "Extra-intellectual Aspects of Torah Study" (Hebrew), Da'at 86 (2018): 445-46. I thank Moshe Benovitz for referring me to this rich study.
23. See the appendix for a description of the various textual witnesses to this text.
24. The words added in brackets appear only in Budapest, National Széchényi Library, fol. 5, but not in the Constantinople printing.
25. This addition appears only in Budapest, NSZL, fol. 5.
26. Samuel Kohn, "Die hebráischen Handschriften des ungarischen Nationalmuseums zu Budapest," Magazin fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums 4 (1876): 102.
27. Kohn, "Die hebráischen Handschriften."
28. On the centrality of fasting in medieval piety, see Elisheva Baumgarten, Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, and Everyday Religious Observance (Philadelphia, 2014), 60-70; and her "Appropriation and Differentiation: Jewish Identity in Medieval Ashkenaz," AJS Review 42.1 (2018): 39-63.
29. On the reciting of Psalms daily as an act of piety, see Abraham J. Berkovitz, "The Receptions of Psalms in Jewish History: Transformation, Growth, and Continuity," in Cambridge Companion to the Book of Psalms, ed. J. LeMon and B. Strawn (Cambridge, forthcoming); and his A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity (Philadelphia, 2023), esp. chs. 3 and 4. Ephraim Kanarfogel is preparing a study on the medieval custom of reciting Psalms, "Tracing the Daily Recitation of Additional Psalms," which will appear in his book tentatively titled Matters of Heaven and Earth: Liturgy, Hekhalot Literature, and Cultural Boundaries in Medieval Ashkenaz.
30. My translation of the colophon is based primarily on London, BL Add. 11639, the earliest copy of Isaac's Semak, which preserves an early version of the text, though I also consulted a number of late thirteenth- and early fourteenthcentury manuscripts, copied in France and Germany, including Nimes, BM 26; Parma, Palatina Parm. 1940; Oxford, Bodl. MS Opp. 338; Oxford, Bodl. MS Opp. 340; Paris, BnF héb. 384; Paris, BnF héb. 389; and Milano, Ambrosiana X 111 Sup.
31. The words in brackets, lilmod u-lilamed, are absent from London, BL Add. 11639, but do appear in all the other manuscripts that contain the colophon. The words were apparently added at a later stage by the author.
32. In translating the words "its allotted section" (ha-katsuv bo), I have adopted the reading in London, BL Add. 11639. However, in most manuscripts this is phrased slightly differently: "All of its allotted section (kol ha-katsuv bo]." It should be noted that in Nimes, BM 26 and Milano, Ambrosiana X 111 Sup., The reading is "all that is written there [ko] ha-katuv bo]." This seems to be an erroneous reading, possibly as a result of mishearing the word katsuv, as the two words written Hebrew form are not at all similar.
33. Le-ma'an yahil tuvo: the phrase is borrowed from Job 20.21. See Rashi's commentary on the verse, where he understands the word yahil to mean "successful." A literal translation of the phrase according to Rashi's understanding would be "so that he prospers in goodness."
34. The author concludes his colophon with an allusion to the title of his book, which relates to its diasporic context, and adds a pledge to revisit all the remaining commandments-specifically those observed in the Land of Israel, when the Jews return to their land.
And I have called it "Amude golah [Pillars of exile].
And when he rebuilds Zion, soon, upon its ruins,
May we study the commandments which are dependent on its land-
With the help of the one who dwells on high.
35. The translation of the text below is primarily based on Paris, BnF héb. 382.
36. He continues: "For so we have found with regard to Israel, as it is written [Ex 12.28]: 'And the children of Israel went and did [as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron] with regard to the paschal offering. This was stated on the first of Nisan, when they were commanded and accepted upon themselves to comply. The deed, however, was not performed until the fourteenth of Nisan! Moreover, we read in the Sifre [on Num 15.39]: 'so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them'-from here we learn that remembering is akin to doing." This should probably be corrected to the subsequent verse (Num 15.40): "So you shall remember and do all my commandments," since these are the words relevant to the Sifre's comment "to render remembering akin to doing [le-'asot zikaron ke-ma'aseh]."
37. Gedole; this is the reading in Budapest, NSZL, fol. 5, which denotes scholars. The Constantinople version of the report, which may be more original, uses the word anshe, "men," which in this context has the same meaning. Although itis less original, I prefer the Budapest version as the basis of my translation, since it captures the intent of the author more accurately.
38. This addition appears only in Budapest, NSZL, fol. 5.
39. See, for example, the recent study by Susan R. Kramer, Sin, Interiority, and Selfhood in the Tiwelfth-Century West (Toronto, 2015).
40. See John Marenbon, The Philosophy of Peter Abelard (Cambridge, 1997), 253-64. The approach, at least regarding sin and penance, can be viewed as an internal development of the schools drawing upon previous scholarly traditions. See Joseph Goering, "The Scholastic Turn (1100-1500): Penitential Theology and the Law in the Schools," in A New History of Penance, ed. A. Firey (Leiden, 2008), 219-37; Rob Meens, Penance in Medieval Europe, 600-1200 (Cambridge, 2014), 199- 204; and Atria A. Larson, "Papal Councils and the Development of Lay Penance in the Long Twelfth Century," Cristianesimo nella storia 39.2 (2018): 331-33. See also Larson's discussion of the sources of influence upon Abelard and Gration in her Master of Penance: Gratian and the Development of Penitential Thought and Law in the Twelfth Century (Washington, D.C., 2014), 86-92.
41. Regarding the twelfth century, see, for example, Aryeh Grabois, "The Hebraica Veritas and Jewish-Christian Intellectual Relations in the 12th Century," Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 50.3 (1975): 613-34.
42. His two theological works were published in The Ethical Treatises of Berachya son of Rabbi Natronai Ha-Nakdan, ed. H. Gollancz (London, 1902).
43. Regarding Berekhiah's life, sojourns, and various works, see Tamas Visi, "Berechiah Ben Natronai Ha-Nagdan's Dodi Ve-Nekdi and the Transfer of Scientific Knowledge from Latin to Hebrew in the Twelfth Century," Aleph 14.2 (2014): 9-32.
44. Gollancz details much of this in his introduction. See Gollancz, Ethical Treatises, xxxi-xxxiv and xlv-xlvii. For an updated discussion, see Visi, "Berechiah Ben Natronai," 9-32.
45. Moses of Coucy cited Berekhiah by name at least twice in his commentary to the Pentateuch (Deut 27.13 and 32.39). Moses" commentary is not extant; however, these passages can be found in the medieval tosafist collection of biblical commentaries, Minhat Yehudah. 1 note this usage plus an additional place that he may have used Berekhiah in his Semag in my "R. Moshe mi-Coucy ke-hasid, darshan u-fulmusan" (M.A. thesis, Yeshiva University, 1993), 4 (and 6n13), 67n12.
46. See Abraham Ibn Ezra, Yesod mora ve-sod Torah, ed. J. Cohen and U. Simon, 2nd rev. and extended ed. (Hebrew; Ramat Gan, 2007), ch. 7, 145-48. For an English translation of the work, see N. Strickman, The Secret of the Torah: A Translation of Abraham Ibn Ezra's "Sefer Yesod Mora Ve-Sod Ha-Torah" (Northvale, N.J.,1995). An online and updated version of this translation (by Strickman) can be found at Alhatorah Library, https://library.alhatorah.org/?r1=Yesod_Mora _Introduction&s1=3. Ibn Ezra wrote this book toward the end of his life while residing in Christian Europe, in London, during the year 1158-59 (see the editor's introduction to the Cohen and Simon edition of Yesod mora, 16). See also his long commentary to Ex 31.18.
47. See Ibn Ezra, Yesod mora, 136-37 and 145-438.
48. In other words, the metaphysical Lord of Being qua Being is the same providential God who acts in the history of our world, liberating us from the house of bondage. I thank Zeev Harvey for clarifying this formulation for me.
49. Gollancz, Ethical Treatises, 121, in the Hebrew original, and 249, in his translation. The translation above is my own.
50. Gollancz, Ethical Treatises.
51. See Ivan G. Marcus, Piety and Society: The Jewish Pietists of Medieval Germany (Leiden, 1981), esp. 55-74, where he describes the group, at least in its initial stages, as a social movement that has many of the characteristics of a sect. Haym Soloveitchik took issue with this characterization, suggesting that it was far more plausible to view them as similar to the active religious orders within the Church structure; see Soloveitchik, Collected Essays (Oxford, 2020), 3:245-46. Marcus recently reframed his understanding and no longer views them as a movement but rather as a small circle of scholars who studied with Judah the Pious; see his Sefer Hasidim and the Ashkenazic Book in Medieval Europe (Philadelphia, 2018), 72. Finally, Elisheva Baumgarten has moved even further away from applying any kind of social categorization and therefore portrays them simply as individual thinkers; see her "Who Was a Hasid or Hasidah in Medieval Ashkenaz? Reassessing the Social Implications of a Term," Jewish History 34.3 (2021): 125-54.
52. Much has been written about these unique rabbis and their thought. For a brief overview, see Joseph Dan's entry, "Hasidei Ashkenaz," in Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (Detroit, 2007), 8:386-89; and Ephraim Kanarfogel's entry, "Middle Ages: Hasidei Ashkenaz," in The Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture, ed. J. В. Baskin (Cambridge, 2011), 432-33. For further insight into the world of these unique scholars and their religious worldview, see Joseph Dan, R. Judah he-Hasid (Hebrew; Jerusalem, 2006), esp. chs. 5, 6, and 9; and Marcus, Piety and Society. These studies should be supplemented with Haym Soloveitchik's "Three Themes in the 'Sefer Hasidim," AJS Review 1 (1976): 31-57, now reprinted and updated in his Collected Essays, 3:5-69. See also his new essays in the same volume, 180-249.
53. See the recent formulation by Ephraim Kanarfogel, "Ta'ame ha-misvotin Medieval Ashkenaz," in Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism: Studies in Law, Philosophy, Pietism, and Kabbalah, ed. J. P. Brown ad M. Herman (Leiden, 2021), 187-88. This may be demonstrated in their treatment of the commandment to study Torah, as well their dual approach to maintain intent in prayer. In addition to their very complex system of kavanot (intent), they also promoted reciting prayers in the vernacular for Jews who could not comprehend the Hebrew prayers. On their sophisticated pious approach, see Talya Fishman, "Rhineland Pietist Approaches to Prayer and the Textualization of Rabbinic Culture in Medieval Northern Europe," JSQ 11.4 (2004): 313-31. Regarding simple piety, see Ivan G. Marcus, "The Devotional Ideals of Ashkenazic Pietism," in Jewish Spirituality, vol. 1: From the Bible through the Middle Ages, ed. A. Green (New York, 1986), 363-64.
54. See Haym Soloveitchik, "Three Themes in the 'Sefer Hasidim," 324-25 (Collected Essays, 3:22-23).
55. Scholars heavily debated the influence of these Hasidim in France and Spain; a recent summary of various approaches can be found in Judah Galinsky, "The Impact of Hasidei Ashkenaz in Northern France: The Evidence of Sefer Hasidut and Hayei Olam," Jewish History 34 (2021): 155-75.
56. See Ephraim Kanarfogel, "German Pietism in Northern France: The Case of R. Isaac of Corbeil," in Hazon Nahum: Studies in Jewish Law, Thought and History Presented to Dr. Norman Lamm, ed. Y. Elman and J. $. Gurock (New York, 1997), 207-27; and Kanarfogel, "Peering Through the Lattices": Mystical, Magical and Pietistic Dimensions in the Tosafist Period (Detroit, 2000), 81-92. In addition, see Isaac's approach to the prohibition not to covet what belongs to one's neighbor (commandment #19), and his treatment of the prohibition against hardening one's heart to the poor in relation to charity (commandment #20) and taking revenge (commandment #125). In all these cases he references an imperative beyond the law. Two other issues that demonstrate his pious orientation are his approach to voluntary martyrdom (commandment #3) and his position on looking at women (commandment #30). The entire topic requires comprehensive analysis.
57. See Judah b. Samuel, Sefer Hasidim, ed. J. Wistenetzky (Frankfurt, 1924), #4-6. The complete text was translated by Ivan С. Marcus, "Narrative Fantasies from Sefer Hasidim," in Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literatures, ed. D. Stern and M. J. Mirsky (Philadelphia, 1990), 215-38, esp. 219-20.
58. In addition to Marcus's contribution (especially in the notes to the story), see Tamar Alexander-Frizer, The Pious Sinner: Ethics and Aesthetics in the Medieval Hasidic Narrative (Tübingen, 1991), 58-86. Her study references the previous studies on this tale.
59. Sefer Hasidim, ed. Wistenetzky, #5.
60. Sefer Hasidim, ed. Wistenetzky, #6.
61. See below for an alternative reading of this line.
62. Sefer Hasidim, ed. Wistenetzky, #4.
63. See bSan 106b: "But it is because the Holy One, blessed be he, requires the heart, asitis written, but the Lord looks at the heart [1 Sam 16.7]."
64. Sefer Hasidim, ed. Wistenetzky, #6 (at the end of the passage).
65. The Parma manuscriptis dated to the beginning of the fourteenth century; the gloss, which is limited to the passage described below, is from either the fifteenth or even as late as sixteenth century. I thank Tamar Leiter for assisting me in dating the gloss.
66. Cat. De Rossi 1133; cat. Richler 1367, fol. 3v.
67. Now in the hands of a private collector.
68. ...
69. ...
70. ...
71. It is possible that he omitted from the list commandments that are irrelevant to Jews living in medieval Europe, such as laws conditioned upon living in the Land of Israel, because a commitment could not be expected to commandments that are, by definition, impossible to observe. If the reading was going to be a relevant religious experience, it had to be limited to commandments that could be observed at least in theory.
72. Although this argument is not without tension. By liturgizing the normative laws of Judaism, Isaac in many ways acts like the scholar who tries to teach the shepherd the normative prayer. In other words, what you might be seeing in these medieval sources is a cluster of conflicting discourses based on a shared reading of a talmudic text. I thank A. J. Berkovitz for pointing this out to me.
73. See Baumgarten, "Appropriation and Differentiation."
74. See Joseph Goering, "Leonard E. Boyle and the Invention of Pastoralia," in A Companion to Pastoral Care in the Late Middle Ages (1200-1500), ed. К. J. Stansbury (Leiden, 2010), 7-20; Goering, introduction to Robert Grosseteste, Templum Dei, ed. J. Goering and Е. A. С. Mantello (Toronto, 1984), 9-14; and Goering, "The Summa Qui Bene Praesunt and Its Author," in Literature and Religion in the Later Middle Ages: Philological Studies in Honor of Siegfried Wenzel, ed. Е. С. Newhauser and J. A. Alford (Binghamton, 1995), 144-52. See also Catherine Rider, "Lay Religion and Pastoral Care in Thirteenth-Century England: The Evidence of a Group of Short Confession Manuals," Journal of Medieval History 36.4 (2010): 327-40; Andrew Reeves, Religious Education in Thirteenth- Century England: The Creed and Articles of Faith (Leiden, 2015); and Boulton, Literary Echoes.
75. Although in both religious cultures the actions (or lack thereof) were designed to bring merit and reward.
76. They fasted to ensure that the reward of reading from the list would be equal to the reciting of psalms. The centrality of the recitation of psalms in Christian piety, including lay piety, is well documented. See S. Boynton and D. J. Reilly, eds., The Practice of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Production, Reception, and Performance in Western Christianity (New York, 2011), 10-33, 247-71. For an example of a defined group of psalms that is first popular among clerics and is then adopted by the laity, see Michael Driscoll, "The Seven Penitential Psalms: Their Designation and Usage from the Middle Ages Onwards," Ecclesia Orans 17 (2000): 153-201.
77. For other aspects of medieval Ashkenazic piety, see Baumgarten, Practicing Piety.
78. See E. Baumgarten, R. M. Karras, and K. Mesler, eds., Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Transmission in Thirteenth-Century Jewish Cultures (Philadelphia, 2017), 4.
79. Entangled Histories, 5.
80. Of the thirty-eight manuscripts copied in Ashkenazic Hebrew script between the late thirteenth century and circa 1320, only seven contain this letter: (1) Paris, BnF héb. 379 (end of thirteenth century); (2) Paris, BnF héb. 389 (end of thirteenth century, pre-1297); (3) Hamburg, SUB Cod. Heb. 98 (end of thirteenth century, pre-1297); (4) Parma, Palatina Parm. 2766 (ca. 1290-1310); (5) Oxford, Bodl. MS Opp. 342 (1309); (6) Oxford, Bodl. MS Mich. Add. 41 (ca. 1300-1325); (7) Vienna, ONB Cod. Hebr. 75 (ca. 1312-22). I focus on the Ashkenazic manuscripts, since they represent the overwhelming majority of all extant manuscripts. If one expands the search until circa 1350, then there are altogether eighteen out of sixtythree manuscripts in Ashkenazic script that contain Isaac's letter.
81. In what is possibly closest to the original textual witness of this letter, Paris, BnF héb. 382, a manuscript copied in Italy, the postscript to the letter reads: "And they also sent [it] to the esteemed ones of Ashkenaz requesting that they ratify this. Because of our sins, he [i.e., Isaac] did not have the opportunity to send it to these kingdoms [himself] as he was called up to the academy on high." A similar version also appears in Paris, BnF héb. 389; Vienna, ONB Cod. Hebr. 75; and Oxford, Bodl. MS Opp. 342. Other manuscripts have what appears to be an abbreviated secondary version of this report.
82. There is a fifth addition that does not appear in any of the early Ashkenazic manuscripts but does appear in other ones. The earliest one, copied in Italy in the year 1327, mentions the year Isaac completed his work as 1276-77. See Simcha Emanuel, Fragments of the Tablets: Lost Books of the Tosaphists (Hebrew; Jerusalem, 2006), 198.
83. Out of the earliest eighteen manuscripts in Ashkenazic script that contain Isaac's letter to the communities (until circa 1350), this addition appears in only seven. The addition does not appear in the following manuscripts: (1) Paris, BnF héb. 379; (2) Paris, BnF héb. 389; (3) Parma, Palatina Parm. 27766; (4) Oxford, Bodl. MS Mich. Add. 41; (5) Vienna, ONB Cod. Hebr. 75; (6) Hamburg, SUB Cod. Hebr. 128; (7) Budapest, NSZL fol. 5; (8) British Library Add. 1868s; (9) Cincinnati, HUC 674; (10) Valencia, Casa Professa [2]; (11) Paris, BnF héb. 391. Apart from Paris, BnF héb. 382, which was copied in Italy, the addition does appear in complete form and its proper place in five Ashkenzic manuscripts: (1) Oxford, Bodl. MS Opp. 342; (2) Parma, Palatina Parm. 2908; (3) Hamburg, SUB Cod. Heb. 143; (4) Oxford, Bodl. MS. Opp. 335; (5) Milano Ambrosiana A 80 inf. However, in two manuscripts-Hamburg, SUB Cod. Heb. 98; and El Escorial G III 16; as well as in Cremona first printing (which impacted all subsequent printings) -Solomon's proofs for Isaac's innovation were integrated in the first part of Isaac's letter, at the end of the section that dealt with the list of commandments. This reflects a later textual development. In these two manuscripts, the first part of Solomon's addition, cited in the body of this study, is absent. It is noteworthy that the scribe of the Escorial version was probably aware of the Hamburg text (including the gloss) or a similar version, since Escorial includes another addition that does not appear in the other manuscripts of Isaac's letter. Whereas in the Hamburg version, this addition is copied in the margins, outside of Isaac's words, in Escorial this addition is integrated into Isaac's letter in its relevant place. The addition addresses a teaching by the talmudic sage Akiva, relating to the study of Torah. A scholar or scribe cited the text, which was brought by Isaac in his Semak, to supplement the letter, where the teaching is only hinted at.
84. In the Hebrew original this is abbreviated bh"r (=ben ha-rav rabenu).
85. In most manuscripts, the identity of the student who appended the additional material is unknown- but four manuscripts do mention a name. The transition from Isaac's letter to the additional materials (which primarily include other materials written by or reported in the name of Isaac of Corbeil), which appears in Oxford, Bodl. MS Opp. 342, supports the reading in Paris, BnF héb. 382: "until here is the letter of the Rav, the holy one, Rabenu Isaac b"r Joseph, may the memory of the tsadik be blessed, and this was written by h"r [ha-Rav Rabenu] Solomon, may his light shine." In Hamburg, SUB Cod. Heb. 143, the name of the student is "Joseph Solomon." In Parma, Palatina Parm. 2908 (as well as Oxford, Bodl. MS. Opp. 335, which is nearly an exact copy of Parma Palatina), the name of the student is Mos[es] Solomon, the son of Solomon.
86. Regarding the appellate "man of valor" (ish hayil) appended to his father's name, see Israel Levi, "Un recueil de consultations inédites de rabbins de la France méridionale," Revue des Études Juives 43 (1901): 248. I thank Pinchas Roth for bringing this study to my attention.
87. There are three textual witnesses of this report, and only one is complete. The complete text was printed on the opening folio of the first printing of Semak (Constantinople, ca. 1511-13). A partial text, which ends just before it concludes its treatment of Isaac's work and is missing the description of Peretz's glosses, was appended by a later hand, during the fifteenth century, to Budapest, NSZL, fol. 5 on fol. 52v. This text was published and supplemented with the Constantinople witness by Kohn, "Die hebráischen Handschriften," 102-4. Paris, BnF héb. 386, datable ca. 1310-40, contains only the section of the report that describes Peretz's glosses. This manuscript was probably copied in North Africa. There are only slight differences between the various textual witnesses.
88. In Budapest, NSZL, fol. 5, this report is attributed to Isaac of Strasbourg; however, in the Constantinople text and in Paris, BnF héb. 386, this Isaac is mentioned not as the person who visited Corbeil but rather as the grandfather (or great-grandfather) of Mordechai b. Natan (b. Elyakim) who copied this text. I have chosen to accept the attribution to Isaac.
APPENDIX
Isaac's Letter and His Student's Report: The Textual Evidence
Two main texts supply us with information about Isaac's initiative. The first is a letter Isaac wrote to the Jewish communities in France, one that he had also intended to send to Germany. Fortuitously, this letter survived, probably thanks to Solomon ben Solomon, Isaac's student, who decided to append the letter to his copy of Semak together with other materials relevant to the book. Most early manuscripts do not include this text, but it does appear in all printed editions of the work from the earliest printing to this very day.80 The letter that was copied was not Isaac's original letter sent to the Jewish communities in France but a copy of the one he intended to send to the Jewish communities of Germany-a plan never implemented because of his untimely death.81
In some of the early Ashkenazic manuscripts that contain the letter, there are also four short texts appended to it by a student or students.82 The first appears as a postscript describing Isaac's plan to send the letter to German-speaking lands. The second addition reveals Isaac's aspiration that women should also recite from his list and study his legal work on topics that were relevant to their religious observance. In the third, Isaac's student Solomon b. Solomon reinforces his teacher's claim that reciting the list had religious significance. The fourth addition, presented as Isaac's own writing, contain his instructions to the reader about how to use his legal work in a proper fashion. Not all the early manuscripts contain all of these additions.
As already mentioned, one of the additions appended to the letter was written by Solomon ben Solomon himself. His addition appears in some of the early manuscripts of the work that include Isaac's letter but does not appear in the printed editions.83 In MS Paris, BnF héb. 382, Solomon signs his addition to the letter, "Peace unto all of Israel, by one who 'lusts' [for his teacher], the youngest of his students, Solomon the son of Rabbi84 Solomon,85 Man of Valor."86
The second primary text that supplies us with information about Isaac's initiative?87 is an oral report transcribed by a visiting scholar, a cer tain Isaac of Strasbourg,88 who met Isaac of Corbeil's students while visiting in Corbeil. These students apparently had access to Isaac's letter mentioned earlier, as they seem to be quoting parts of it. They, however, also relate details not mentioned in the letter, indicating that they were privy to other sources of information.
Copyright University of Pennsylvania Press Spring 2024