Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society At the End of the Middle Ages

"An acknowledged classic. Katz has transformed our conception of Jewish history from the 16th to the 18th century. Because of his work, we now understand that the ghetto was no longer sealed off at that time from outside opinions and that the movement towards modernity had begun long before the Jews were actually legally emancipated. Making this work available again in the revised edition is a service to scholarship and to public enlightenment."
—Arthur Hertzberg

"Since it first appeared in Hebrew in 1958, Tradition and Crisis has had a tremendous impact on generations of students and scholars. Katz's innovative use of sources has introduced scholars to new methodologies and opened new vistas for research. This new, unabridged translation is therefore highly welcome. It will ensure its continued use in the English-speaking world."
—Jehuda Reinharz, Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History, Brandeis University

"Like a lovingly restored painting, Bernard Cooperman's new, annotated translation of Jacob Katz's classic portrait of early Jewish modernity can now be fully appreciated for the first time. An admirable achievement."
—Ivan G. Marcus

When it first appeared in Hebrew in 1958 and in English in 1961, Tradition and Crisis, Jacob Katz's groundbreaking study of Jewish society at the end of the Middle Ages, dramatically changed our perceptions of the Jewish community prior to the era of modernity. This new, unabridged translation by Bernard Dov Cooperman makes this classic available to new generations of students and scholars, together with Katz's original source notes, and an afterword and an updatingbibliographic appendix by Professor Cooperman.

Katz revolutionized the field by tapping into a rich and hitherto unexplored source for reconstructing the sociology of a previous era: the responsa literature of the Rabbinic establishment during the Middle Ages. The self-governing communities of Jews in Europe dealt with issues both civil and religious. The questions and answers addressed to the rabbinic authorities and courts provide an incomparable wealth of insights into life as it was lived in this period and into the social, historical, cultural, and economic issues of the day.

How did European Jewry progress from a socially and culturally segregated society to become a component of European society at large? What were Jewish attitudes toward the Gentile world from which Jewry had been secluded for centuries? What were the bridges from the old to the new era?

Tradition and Crisis traces the roots of modernity to internal developments within the communities themselves. Katz traces the modern movements of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) in the West and Hasidism in the East, to an internal breakdown in the structure of these communities and the emergence of an alternative leadership in the wake of the Sabbatian challenge.
A dynamic work that has radically changed our view of this history, Tradition and Crisis remains the pivotal text for understanding the revolution in the entire conception of Jewish identity in the modern era.

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Table of Contents

foreword

Section 1 of the material basis

Chapter I: Introduction: The definition of the subject time frame of this period - The essence of social history - the history of regional division - Signs of National Unity - The crisis at the end of this period

Chapter II: The Jewish community and his Jewish society as a subgroup - Demographics - Features : housing , clothing, language - religious difference - Political boundaries of the status of Jewish life

Chapter III: External isolation
Religious differences - Laws that promote isolation - Adaptation to the requirements of the laws of reality - Social isolation - Between Judaism and Christianity - Causes of martyrdom
 
Chapter IV: The methods of making contact with the surrounding society Jews single non-Jewish environment - Jews , isolated from the non-Jewish environment - Different degrees of proximity to the non-Jewish environment - Separate living quarters of the Jews - Different approaches to the isolation of the living environment

Chapter V: The ratio of the non-Jewish environment
Regulation of relations with non-Jewish courts - dual nature of Jewish law and ethics - the principle of " sacrilege " - Christians and idolaters - Public oversight of the individual's relationship with his environment

Chapter VI: The economic sphere
Professional diversity of the Jews - economic structure of the period - the role of the Jews in the financial sector - The liquid nature of the Jewish capital - Credit and the Jewish role in its formation - Dependence of the right of residence of the ownership of capital

Chapter VII: Paths of the Jewish economy
State , mixed and free capitalism - the role of Jews in the state capitalism - Tool relation to the surrounding society - The interest of the authorities in the Jewish economy - the dependence of the Jews from the authorities - the court Jews - Craftsmen - The participation of Jews in the prohibited activities - Participation of the Jews in the free capitalism - monopolies in Jewish society - Social tension in the Jewish community

Chapter VIII: Economics and Religion
Religion as a factor of economic life - Religious prohibitions - Informal and halachic resolutions - Ban on charging interest and "leave to deal" - Adaptation of Talmudic law to new conditions - Addicted To Wealth - Religious excuse acts of the person - time distribution concept in connection with the commandment to study the Torah

Section 2 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND STRUCTURE OF THE COMPANY

Chapter IX: Community , its shape and organization
The Talmudic tradition as the foundation of the community - Obscheashkenazsky and local customs - Community setting - Halacha and the regime of the community - the Sephardim -cal influence - Parnassus and their functions - Religious responsibility Parnassus - Community officials - Shtadlan - Rabbi of the community - The linkages between the rabbi and the Parnassus

Chapter x: Areas of the community
Parnas and power - Right Parnassus coercion - Types of taxes and their distribution - Community as a financial institution - Rights of the individual - the Court of heads of families - Fee Dayan - Prohibition of access to non-Jewish courts and its limitations - Criminal Law - Jeremy - Issuance of non-Jewish Jew authorities

Chapter XI: The composition of the community
The right of residence ( " hezkat yishuv ha ") - Admissions to the residence and its termination - The right of residence of family members - The temporary nature of appointments and posts - Replacement of officers , terms of appointment to the post of rabbi of the community - Age and the gradual move up the social ladder as conditions appointment - Participation in the payment of taxes (" total ") as a condition of appointment

Chapter XII: The relationship between the communities of the village on the periphery of the community - Local community - Cooperation between communities - Intercommunity differences - Jeremy Rabbenu Tam challenge due to geta after its publication - Legal relations between members of different communities - Striving to create nadobschinnoy organization - the Frankfurt Assembly in 1603 year

Chapter XIII: Nadobschinnye organization
 The socio -historical concept - the Government and the existence of institutions - Guide rabbis and heads of families - Lack of Implementation of the machine - "Country" as the court - Powers "countries" and their benefits

Chapter XIV: Family
 Framework to which the individual belongs - Structure and composition of the family - family - "Conditions" and the marriage - The role of parents in the choice of husband / wife - Age at marriage - Causes of early marriage - Feature dowry - Courtship - No marriage for personal choice - Limit Sex outside of marriage - Obstacles to divorce - Involuntary celibacy - Sexual Perversions

Chapter XV: Family ties Family as an institution of society and education - Relationships based on family togetherness - Ponyatierodstva according to Halacha - Duty to provide support to family members - family ties as a political and economic advantage - extra-familial nature of the legal and governmental institutions

Chapter XVI: Public organizations and social life Pastime in the community - the synagogue as a factor in isolation - Chevra Kadisha ( burial society ) and its functions - Other societies that perform the commandments - the Company's artisans - Incidental activities of society - as a " cover-up " activities leisure activities - The commandment to study the Torah compared to a waste of time - Seudot MIC Islands - Representatives of the "middle class" and membership in the society - as an institution of social control

Chapter XVII: Religious institutions rabbinate and synagogue - communal rabbinate and tutorial Rabbinate - Spontaneous hierarchy halakhic authorities - Rational nature of halachic mentoring - Rabbi as a " warner " - local and itinerant preachers - The aesthetic pleasure of preaching - Public nature of Jewish prayer - Terms of public prayer - Synagogue in the service of community leadership - Synagogue as a place to demonstrate the social status - The social function of religion in society

Chapter XVIII: Education Institutes Institute of Education, as a carrier of values ​​- family and the synagogue as an institution of education - Preparation for the practical life - Heder and its financing , public oversight Heder - Learning content - Yeshiva and head of the yeshiva - Nadobschinny character yeshivas - Method pilpula and " hilukim "- The title of" Haver "and" moraine "- Rabbi as the voice box - Reducing the status of the yeshiva at the end of this period

Chapter XIX: The changes in the social hierarchy of functional concept of society - Stratification - Political status as a basis for stratification - Lack of class divisions - economic status and its instability - "The difference between the ancestors " and the knowledge of the Torah as the source of stratification - Concentration of sources of stratification in the same hands - conflicts between the carriers of values ​​- Interchangeable values ​​- the degree of social mobility

Unit 3 began to unravel

Chapter XX: Events and processes of change in the social and spiritual spheres - Response to " judgments of the Lord" 1648-1649 years. - Movement of Shabtai Tzvi - Shabbethaian sect and its sociological character - Relations between the movement and the events Shabbethaian 1648-1649 gg. - The national character of the movement - Contact Safed Kabbalah - The religious function of practical commandments according to Kabbalah - fruitfulness of Kabbalah Ritual - The religious elite Kabbalists - The split between the elite and the "ordinary " people

Chapter XXI: The value of the turning point between conservatism and change - Traditional society is at a new stage - Features Hasidism and Haskalah - Haskalah dependence on external change - Dependence on sabbatianstva Hasidism and Kabbalah - The undermining of the social foundations of society - the crisis of religious schools - depending on the meaning of the preceding movements - " Charismatic religiosity " and alienation from the old values

Chapter XXII: The transition to Hasidism "People's" Hasidism - Leaders of the movement - Besht - Distribution of traffic - Isolation of Kabbalah and Hasidism sabbatianstva - The linkages between the tzaddik and the masses - Changes in religious practices - Relation to Halachah and its zealots - Hasidic community and its dimensions - Collision with a zealous tradition - the weakening of the family - Impact on the Jewish mentality

Chapter XXIII: The emergence of a neutral public signs of social disintegration - Masks - The collapse of the estates within the state - The court Jew - State intervention in the leadership of the community - Conservation of social isolation - The emergence of independent citizens - desirable picture of the future from the point of view of rationalism - "The spiritual elite" - a new framework for dialogue between Jews and non-Jews - Near Mendelssohn to both worlds - Vykresty and their ideology - Elite "enlightened Jews

Chapter XXIV: The ideal of the Jewish Enlightenment ideal of Formation - The pursuit of professional diversification - Criticism of the Jewish organizations - A new ideal of education - Romantic love as a family norm - Relation to the practical precepts - The New Face of the synagogue - Rejection of a national framework - The weakening of national unity - Maskilim against the " guardians "
 
Notes

index

Abbreviations