Midrashic Texts and Methods in Tosafist Torah Commentaries

This chapter evaluates midrashic texts and methods in Tosafist Torah commentaries. The relationship between biblical and talmudic studies in medieval Ashkenaz is rather complex, and a number of trenchant questions remain. From all that is known about the Tosafists, and as E. E. Urbach's thorough treatment of their extensive literary corpus serves to demonstrate, talmudic and halakhic studies were at the core of the tosafist enterprise. Although the Talmud obviously cites and interprets myriad biblical verses for both halakhic and aggadic purposes and Tosafot passages include a fair amount of biblical interpretation in the course of their discussions and deliberations, the talmudocentric orientation of the Tosafists remains paramount throughout. As the leading rabbinic scholars in northern Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Tosafists cite a wide range of midrashic collections and perspectives in their talmudic comments. Indeed, the standard Tosafot on the Babylonian Talmud question and analyse talmudic sugyot (literary units) not only on the basis of halakhic and aggadic midrashim that were considered to be contemporary with the Talmud, but also in light of other midrashim whose origins and milieux are later and less clear.