Interpretive Trends in Early Modern Ashkenazic Responsa: Cases of Social and Economic Conflict

• In Event: Reading Formulaic Texts from Early Modern Ashkenaz: Three Case Studies in Law and Economics

Abstract

This paper focuses on the identification and assessment of major interpretive strategies employed by early modern Ashkenazic POSEQIM (halakhic decisors) in cases dealing with social and economic conflict. The analysis centers on legal opinions formulated in widely disseminated rabbinic responsa in central and western Europe in the late seventeenth century and in the first decades of the eighteenth century. The responsa employed in this study were authored by Rabbis Ẓevi Hirsch Ashkenazi, Resp Ḥakham Ẓevi; Ya’ir Hayyim Bacharach, Resp Ḥavvot Ya’ir; Jacob Reischer, Resp. Shevut Ya’akov; and Jonah Landsofer, Resp. Me’il Zedakah. These compendia refer principally to cases that transpired in Altona-Hamburg, Worms, Prague, and Metz.

At the heart of this study is an attempt to investigate systematically how early modern judicial rulings were constructed and the modes of argumentation that were articulated, specifically in the realm of social and economic interactions. Close attention to language, rhetoric, and structure is an important part of this analysis. The overall goal of the investigation is to determine the degree of reliance on precedent, the spectrum of attitudes toward medieval and early modern rabbinic authorities, and the preference for particular textual traditions and interpretive methods among early modern POSEQIM. While focusing primarily on internal legal traditions, this paper will also offer a new perspective on the impact of the pre-industrial commercial revolution on Jewish life and law.

author

• Jay R. Berkovitz, University of Massachusetts-Amherst