Social and Educational Consciousness in Twentieth- Century Moroccan Judeo-Arabic Halakhic Literature

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines three halakhic books authored by Rabbi Barukh Assabag in Casablanca during the 1930s and 1940s. Composed in Judeo-Arabic vernacular, these works were intended to cater to the general public whose proficiency in Hebrew was limited. Mindful of the nonobservance of commandments in various sectors of Morocco’s Jewish community, Assabag embarked on this literary endeavor with the aim of rehabilitating religion’s standing. Employing modern methodologies such as the democratization of knowledge, education, and print, Assabag’s innovative approach challenges the oversight of the rabbinic elite in addressing diverse community sectors. I posit that Assabag’s criticism of the rabbinic elite propelled him to propose a novel method for imparting Jewish law to the broader public. Rooted in its language and culture, this approach reflects Assabag’s social and educational consciousness. To achieve this goal, he pioneered a distinctive literary genre in Morocco that domesticated the halakhic text for a wider audience by composing in Judeo-Arabic vernacular, designing a unique structure for his books, and crafting their contents with meticulous care.