The ‘Our Talmud’ Tradition and the Predilection for Works of Applied Law in Early Sephardi Rabbinic Culture

Abstract

This chapter links a Sephardi tradition about the written Talmud to an influential theory in medieval Arabic literary theory and practice. It reviews the text of the Babylonian Talmud that played significantly different roles in the Jewish communities of Ashkenaz and Sepharad, which is the most visible and enduring of the rabbinic subcultures that emerged in the Middle Ages. It also cites Ashkenazi scholars of northern Europe who placed the study of the Talmud at the centre of the rabbinic curriculum, while their counterparts in North Africa and al-Andalus studied eleventh-century talmudic commentaries. The chapter reviews talmudic commentaries by R. Nisim, R. Hananel, and R. Isaac Alfasi that relayed applied legal decisions. It examines how Sephardim relied less on Talmud than on works of decided law, whether these were expressed in commentaries, geonic responsa, or legal digests.