Rashi | Page 9

had to pay taxes and
constitute themselves a constantly flowing source of revenues for their
protectors.
The Jews lived on a basis of good understanding with their neighbors,
and came into frequent intercourse with them. Even the clergy
maintained relations with Jewish scholars. It was the incessant efforts
of the higher ecclesiastics and of the papacy that little by little created
animosity against the Jews, which at the epoch of Rashi was still not
very apparent. The collections of canonical law by force of tradition
renewed the humiliating measures prescribed by the last Roman
emperors.
The Jews throughout France spoke French; and they either had French
names or gave their Hebrew names a French form. In the rabbinical
writings cities are designated by their real names, or by Hebrew names
more or less ingeniously adapted from the Latin or Romance. With the
secularization of their names, the Jews adopted, at least partially, the
customs and, naturally, also the superstitions of their countrymen. The
valuable researches of Gudemann and Israel Levi show how much the
folklore of the two races have in common. Moreover, when two
peoples come in contact, no matter how great the differences
distinguishing them, they are bound to exert mutual influence upon
each other. No impervious partitions exist in sociology.
It would thus be an anachronism to represent the Jews of the eleventh
century as pale and shabby, ever bearing the look of hunted animals,
shamefaced, depressed by clerical hate, royal greed, and the brutality of
the masses. In the Jewries of France at this time there was nothing sad
or sombre, [somber sic] no strait-laced orthodoxy, no jargon, no
disgraceful costume, none of that gloomy isolation betokening distrust,
scorn, and hate.

The practical activity of the Jews, their business interests, and their
consequent wealth did not stifle intellectual ideals. On the contrary,
thanks to the security assured them, they could devote themselves to
study. Their rich literature proves they could occupy themselves at the
same time with mental and material pursuits. "For a people to produce
scholars, it is necessary that it be composed of something other than
hard-hearted usurers and sordid business men. The literary output is a
thorough test of social conditions."[5] Moreover, the intellectual status
of a people always bears relation to its material and economic condition,
and so, where the Jews enjoyed most liberty and happiness, their
literature has been richest and most brilliant.
From an intellectual point of view the Jews resembled the people
among whom they lived. Like them, they were pious, even extremely
devout; and they counted few unbelievers among their number.
Sometimes it happened that a religious person failed to obey precepts,
but no one contested the foundations of belief. In the matter of religion,
it is true, outward observance was guarded above everything else. The
Jews, settled as they were on foreign soil, came to attach themselves to
ceremonials as the surest guarantees of their faith. Naturally
superstitions prevailed at an epoch marked by a total lack of scientific
spirit. People believed in the existence of men without shadows, in evil
demons, and so on. The Jews, however, were less inclined to such
conceptions than the Christians, who in every district had places of
pilgrimage at which they adored spurious bones and relics.
It would be altogether unjust not to recognize the ethical results of the
constant practice of the law, which circumscribed the entire life of the
Jew. Talmudic legislation must not be regarded, as it sometimes is, as
an oppressive yoke, an insufferable fetter. Its exactions do not make it
tyrannical, because it is loyally and freely accepted, accepted even with
pleasure. The whole life of the Jew is taken into consideration
beforehand, its boundaries are marked, its actions controlled. But this
submission entails no self-denial; it is voluntary and the reason is
provided with sufficient motives. Indeed, it is remarkable what freedom
and breadth thought was able to maintain in the very bosom of
orthodoxy.

"The observance of the Law and, consequently, the study of the Law
formed the basis of this religion. With the fall of the Temple the one
place disappeared in which the Divine cult could legitimately be
performed; as a result the Jews turned for the expression of their
religious sentiment with all the more ardor toward the Law, now
become the real sanctuary of Judaism torn from its native soil, the
safeguard of the wandering race, the one heritage of a glorious and
precious past. The recitation and study of the Law took the place of
religious ceremonies-hence the name "school" (Schul) for
houses of worship in France and in Germany. The endeavor was made
to give the Law definite form, to develop it, not only in its provisions
remaining in practical use, such as the civil and penal code, regulations