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[German Version] (Heb. הבָישִׁיְ), literally “sitting”; in the talmudic period it referred to the academies, in the Land of Israel and Babylonia, in which men studied rabbinic law. A rabbinic court was an integral part of the academies, each of which was led by a prominent scholar. In the course of the talmudic period and throughout almost all the geonic period (mid-6th cent. to mid-11th cent.; Gaon) the academies in the Babylonia communities of Sura and Pumbedita were considered authoritative, and …

[German Version] ( Baʾal ha-Turim; c. 1270–1343). Jacob ben Asher fled the German lands together with his father's household and settled in Toledo in 1305. Although he was not himself a rabbi, he composed a four-part code of rabbinic law that integrated much of his German heritage with local Spanish traditions. Unlike Maimonides's earlier Mishne Tora, the Arbaʿa Turim (The Four Rows, see Exod 28:17) introduced multiple possibilities into the legal discussion and was organized in a functional rather than conceptional format. The work very quickly became…

[German Version] (Rabbenu Tam, “our teacher Tam,” likely following Gen 25:27 in which the word “tam” suggests studiousness; c. 1100–1171) was the scion of a leading rabbinic family (his grandfather was Rashi). He left Ramerupt, where he had lived for many years, to move to Troyes (Champagne), after escaping death during the second of the Crusades in 1146. Rabbenu Tam was considered the greatest halakhic (Halakhah) authority of his age, even by distant contemporaries. His revival of talmudic dialec…