[Avodah] Bene Israel of India

[Zev Sero]

On 31/05/2012 6:15 PM, David Riceman wrote:
> RAM:

>> But there was always a certain degree of communication, which allowed the
>> rough edges to get smoothened out. The works of the Raavad and Rama are
>> but two examples.

> I don't want to nitpick (but somehow I end up doing it anyway). The Ra'avad
> was Provencal, neither Sephardic nor Ashkenazic.

Provence counts as Ashkenaz (as opposed to Sefarad), just as France does.
The line between A and S seems to correspond to that between Christendom
and Dar-al-Islam.  Communication within each empire was easier than with
each other.  When Spain became Xian its Jews might eventually have merged
with Ashkenazim, but soon after there were no Jews there.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon