161 Abraham Gross GERONA: A SEPHARDIC CRADLE OF ...

Ezra Chwat
IDENTIFYING AN ALFASI GLOSS-SUPPLEMENT ON ROSH HA-SHANAH,
POSSIBLY OF YOM TOV ASEVILLI IN A FRAGMENT FOUND IN GERONA
1 On the folder in which the fragments are kept
there is written in catalan: «Fulls extrets de les cobertes
d’un protocol de Girona del sigle XIV».
Among the recent Gerona findings, we find
a typical Sephardic hand, 19 lines per page, whose
subject is the Talmudic tractate of Rosh ha-
Shanah (Fig. 1). These fragments have recently
been found in Gerona Historical Archive by
Mauro Perani and they are identified by the numbers
1-8. They were re-used in the 14 th century in
order to make the cardboards of a notarial register
of Gerona 1 . When reconstructed and folded
into it’s original structure, these fragments which
belong to the same manuscript, constitute remnants
of 8 bifolia (16 folios, 32 pages). Four of
the folios, including the first 3 are mostly missing,
presumably cut by the blade of the bookbinder.
Only a word or less per line, from the
edge of the page, is extant. Two other folios are
cut width wise in the center of the page, so about
half of the written text remains. The remaining
ten folios are preserved in relatively good condition,
missing no more than a line of written text
per page. This is not a complete section, as a few
lacunae of a page are found in a few places.
The content is clearly not a talmudic commentary,
rather a text that fits into the category
of Gloss-supplements on the halakhic Code of
Isaac Alfasi. Alfasi gloss-supplements are often
mistaken for Talmud commentaries, because of
the very nature of the Alfasi text which is their
subject, having been formed largely out of the
Talmudic text, in it’s original langue and in its
original order. The gloss segments in these texts
are thusly mere redactions of classic Talmud
Glosses, primarily Rashi, or alternatively
Jonathan of Lunel, Isaac Crakusha of Narbonne,
Barukh the Babylonian or, in the Orient, the
more ancient Hananel of Kairouan, all depending
on the vicinity and aptitude of the composer.
Yet we have developed obvious and clearly
defined criteria which indicate whether the subject
of a gloss is the Talmud itself, or Alfasi’s Talmud
compendium, determinants which can be
applied even to the most minute text fragments.
Notice at the top of the first full folio, immediately
preceding a talmudic phrase found in Bavli,
Rosh ha-Shanah 10b is the end of a sentence explaining
a passage found not in Rosh ha-Shanah
but in Yevamot 83a. This passage is imported into
Alfasi’s composition precisely in the same sequence.
It is therefore not surprising to find that
the same sentence appears in a different Alfasi
gloss-supplement, that of Nissim Gerondi (Ran).
The very following sentence indicates that
the composer presumes that Talmud text is not
available to the user, as he feels obligated to inform
us of the proof text which appears in the
Talmud, but is unavailable to one who is reading
Hilkhot Alfasi. Thus the inference
referring to the Talmud as a foreign source, one
that is not the subject of this composition. Having
scanned all of the talmudic phrases that the
composer relates to, we find none that do not
appear in Alfasi’s compendium. We do find
glosses on terms from extra-talmudic comments
added in Alfasi.
The author of this work is unidentified, as
no colophon is available, yet a direct clue is found
on pg. 11, where he refers to Shelomoh ben Aderet
(Rashba) as . This places him in
Aragon at the end of the 13 th century.
This profile suits perfectly the index of
named and unnamed sources used in the composition
of this text. The author is clearly from the
Geronese school founded by Nahmanides, who is
the source most often quoted here. On p. 4 there
is a citation of the Provencal sage Asher ben
Meshullam, a source that is unknown to the other
Geronese sources here, like Shelomoh ibn Aderet
and Nissim Gerondi. Yet we should not be mislead
by this to deduce that the author has native,
first hand traditions of Provence.
This passage is clearly a redaction of an article
in the Alfasi gloss-supplement of Isaac of
Narbonne. This native of Provence was well versed
in the local rabbinic traditions before attending
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