The Jewish Community of Provence in the XII Century According to the Materials of Raavad Responses from Posquere
In this work an attempt is made to show the originality of the Provencal Jewish tradition, of all the customs formed in the culture of the communities of Provence and Languedoc. This tradition markedly distinguished this subethnic community from the Jewry of the Pyrenean peninsula that followed the Sefardic tradition. By its character the both named systems were very close to one another, because the oral Torah (particularly the norms of Mishnah and Talmud) made the basis of them both (as, by the way, also many other local traditions of the Jews). However, the Sefardic tradition was considered to be closer to the Talmudic normative basis than that of Provence; whereas the latter had been developing in the active interaction of Jewish and non-Jewish local customs oddly intertwining and, becoming a new system of spiritual norms, which then was passed on by the Jews of Provence and Languedoc from generation to generation as "the fathers' customs".