[Avodah] Haym Solveitchik

[Eli Turkel]

from a review of Haym Soloveitchik's recent book on
Yayin Nesech

Historians commonly think that the early Jewish community in Ashkenaz
received its traditions from the Land of Israel. Soloveitchik
questions this assumption and demonstrates that halakhic traditions
also reached Ashkenaz from Babylonia. But there is still no serious
question about the fact that the liturgy of the Land of Israel had a
decisive influence on the prayers and blessings. If one asks how the
traditions made their way to Germany - whether originally from Babylon
or from Palestine - the answer is, via international trade. From the
palaces of the German emperors (in Aachen and Ingleheim), merchants
and emissaries were dispatched to every part of the world, from China
and India to Byzantium and Babylonia, the Land of Israel, Libya,
Alexandria and Yemen. Perhaps of particular interest is the fact that
the oldest known copy of Rashi?s commentaries is a Yemenite manuscript
from 1192, commentary on the Talmudic tractate of Baba Metzi'a.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1044713.html

-- 
Eli Turkel