Although Nahmanides was wrongly held to have been the disciple of
Judab Sir Leon, it was he who introduced into Spain the works and
the method of French Talmudists, whom he possibly came to know
through his masters. Thus the Spanish Talmudists, though they
boasted such great leaders as Alfasi and Maimonides, nevertheless
accepted also the heritage of the French academies. Rashi's
influence is perceptible and acknowledged in the numerous
Talmudic writings of Solomon ben Adret,[148] and it is clearly
manifest in the commentary on Alfasi by Nissim Gerundi (about
1350), who copies Rashi literally, at the same time developing
his thought, not infrequently over-elaborating it. He also
refutes Rashi at times, but his refutation is often wrong. The
man, however, who best represents the fusion of Spanish and
French Talmudism was assuredly Asher hen Jehiel,[149] who, a
native of the banks of the Rhine, implanted in Spain the spirit
of French Judaism, and in his abridgment of the Talmud united
Spanish tradition, whose principal representative was Alfasi,
with Franco-German tradition, whose uncontested leader was Rashi.
Since that time Talmudic activity, the creative force of which
seems to have been exhausted, has been undergoing a change of
character. Asher ben Jehiel, or, as he has been called, Rosh,
terminated an important period of rabbinical literature, the
period of the
Rishonim.
Pages:
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242