Jews in medieval France and the expulsion of 1306

The Jews of medieval France, designated in tradition by the term Tsarfat (the Hebrew name for France), formed a leading intellectual center from the tenth to the fourteenth century, particularly in the northern and eastern parts of the kingdom. The dominant figure was Rachi of Troyes (1040-1105), whose lucid commentaries on the Talmud and the Bible became indispensable, and whose disciples and descendants, the Tossafists, developed a dialectical method of Talmudic analysis of great refinement. The communities experienced economic prosperity linked notably to trade and credit, but were increasingly exposed to persecution: massacres during the Crusades, accusations of desecration and ritual murder, the condemnation and public burning of the Talmud in Paris in 1242. Royal power alternated between fiscal protection and spoliation, until the expulsions of 1306 by Philippe le Bel, followed by successive recalls and banishments culminating in the definitive expulsion of 1394. The exegetical legacy of the French school remains one of the pillars of medieval rabbinical thought.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Sefaria ↗