Type: Commentary

Tosafot

Terminology

Some have seen the Tosafot as an addition to the Talmud itself. As we shall see below, it carries on the Talmud's own methods of dialectical argument and debate.

The Tosafot are printed on the outer margin of the page; i.e., when looking at an opened book you will see the Tosafot in the columns closest to the edges of the pages, farthest from the binding.

They appear in "Rashi script," with the headings of each discussion in large square letters. The Tosafot that have been printed in the standard Talmud editions are merely an accidental selection from a vast literature that circulated in manuscript. Some of the other Tosafot compendia have been published as separate works.

Dates

• Composition

  The Tosafot were composed by many scholars in different schools throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. They probably originated as students' notes of the discussions that took place in the Talmudic academy [=Yeshivah]. As students moved from one yeshivah to another they would assemble personal lists of the Tosafot of their various teachers.

  Some of the most prominent contributers to the Tosafot were:

  Rabbi Jacob ben Meir ("Rabbenu Tam"):

  "Rabbenu Tam" (c. 1100 - 1171), Rashi's grandson, lived in the French town of Ramerupt.

  He was one of the most original and unconventional interpreters of the Talmud. He often proposed bold and ingenious new explanations of the Talmud in order to harmonize it with the practices current in France.

  Rabbi Samuel ben Meir (Acronym: RaShBa"M):

  Rabbi Samuel (c. 1080 - c. 1158) was also a grandson of Rashi's and the brother of Rabbenu Tam.

  In addition to his contributions to the Tosafot, he composed a famous commentary to the Torah that is distinguished by its scholarly objectivity in restricting itself to the plain, contextual meaning of the text without imposing the traditional Rabbinic interpretations. He also composed the commentaries to some of the Talmud sections that his grandfather had left uncompleted.

  Rabbi Isaac of Dampierre (Acronym: R"I):

  A nephew of Rabbenu Tam and the Rashbam, he lived in France during the 12th century, and was one of the most prolific of the Tosafists.

  Rabbi Samson [ben Abraham] of Sens:

  He lived in France during the latter 12th and early 13th centuries, and eventually moved to Jerusalem. He was the most important disciple of Rabbi Isaac of Dampierre. In addition to his Tosafot he composed a commentary to the two orders of the Mishnah for which there is no Babylonian Talmud.

  Rabbi Meir [ben Barukh] of Rothenburg

  He was born in Worms, Germany, around 1225, and died in 1293 while being held for ransom by the Emperor Rudolph.

  Rabbi Meir made important contributions to Jewish civil law, and his many students diligently collected his customs, responsa and rulings, often comparing them with the material in the important Spanish codes of Jewish law.

• Redaction:

  The collection of the scattered Tosafot collections was carried out particularly in France, whereas the German scholars were more interested in compiling halakhic compendia.

  Among the scholars who are known for their contributions to the redaction of the Tosafot were:

  • Rabbi Samson of Sens assembled the collections of Tosafot known as Tosafot Sens.
  • Rabbi Peretz of Corbeil, France (his work was conducted from 1350 to 1368).
  • Rabbi Eliezer [ben Solomon] of Touques, Normandy, whose collections form the basis of most of the Tosafot printed in the standard Talmud editions.
  • Rabbi Asher ben Jehiel ("Ro"sh," "Asheri") edited collections of Tosafot from the important French schools. Late in his life, in 1303 he left Germany for Toledo, Spain. This event was important stage in the dissemination of the Franco-German Talmudic interpretation among Spanish Jews. Rabbii Asher's son, Rabbi Jacob, author of the Tur, would play an important role in the merging of the traditions.

Place

Description

Characteristic of the Tosafot method, like that of the Talmud itself, is the focus on difficulties and contradictions, between different statements and passages in the Talmud, or between the Talmud and other Rabbinic works, or even between the Talmudic legal rulings and the customary practices of the French and German Jewish communities.

In their efforts to resolve these apparent contradictions, the Tosafot usually point out intricate new conceptual and legal distinctions that enhance our understanding of the text.

The dialectical give-and-take of a Tosafot discussion has a typical structure: The objections and difficulties are introduced with the formula "Ve'im tomar" [="And if you should say..."], and the solution with "Yesh lomar" [="It can be said..."]

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