It
is an unique example of continuity. The vitality of Judaism
gained strength in the misfortunes that successively assailed it,
Per damna, per caedes, ab Ipso
Ducit opes auimumque ferro.
A large number of Jews exiled from France established themselves
in the north of Italy, where they formed distinct communities
faithful to the ancient traditions. Thus they propagated the
works of the French rabbis. Rashi's commentaries and the ritual
collections following his teachings were widely copied there, and
of course, truncated and mutilated. They served both as the
text-books of students and as the breviaries, so to speak, of
scholars.
They also imposed themselves, as we have seen, upon the Spanish
rabbis, who freely recognized the superiority of the Jews of
France and Germany in regard to Talmudic schools. Isaac ben
Sheshet[150] said, "From France goes forth the Law, and the word
of God from Germany." Rashi's influence is apparent in the
Talmudic writings of this rabbi, as well as in the works, both
Talmudic and exegetic in character, of his successor Simon ben
Zemah Duran,[151] and in the purely exegetic works of the
celebrated Isaac Abrabanel (1437-1509), who salutes in Rashi "a
father in the province of the Talmud." It was in the fifteenth
century that some of the supercommentaries were made to Rashi's
commentary on the Pentateuch. The most celebrated-and justly
celebrated-is that of Elijah ben Abraham Mizrahi, a Hebrew
scholar, mathematician, and philosopher, who lived in Turkey.
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