The Transfer of Tradition from West to East. The Takanot Shum between the Rhineland and Poland in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. In Jewish self-governance in Eastern Europe, hg. von François Guesnet und Antony Polonsky.

Barzen, Rainer Josef

Zusammenfassung

This chapter explores the migration of takanot (halakhic community ordinances) from the French and German lands to the Polish lands. From the late Middle Ages these ordinances were known as the Takanot Shum, the ordinances of the ‘Shum’ communities — Speyer, Worms, and Mainz — in the Rhineland. Their migration from west to east is a particularly fruitful field of investigation because it covers two different areas of Jewish culture. On the one hand, takanot are halakhic texts with a legal character, the creation of which requires one or more scholars. On the other hand, they also have a constitutional and political character since their implementation requires the support of the leadership of the Jewish community. The theory and practice of formulating social rules, as well as their introduction and transmission, are thus a key element of the cultural transfer from the Jews of the west to the Jews in Poland.