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

Ezra Chwat
The skeletal structure of the articles is
clearly identical. The differences are stylistic. I
line 3 our composer prefers to quote Rashi’s name
(as is common in this genre in articles that criticize
Rashi), and then paraphrase his comment,
whereas Nissim Gerondi quotes him anonymously,
as is also common in this genre, because
the user already is aware that the top line of an
article is from Rashi.
In lines 5 and 8 our composer prefers
the dialectic structure, probably closer to the
style of the Tosafist article at the source of
this passage, Nissim Gerondi refines it by
avoiding the rhetorical dialectic. What is
most interesting here is the additional explanation
in lines 10-11 omitted in Nissim
Gerondi. These same words are found in the
parallel article in Isaac of Narbonne’s composition.
Assuming that our author is prior to
Nissim Gerondi, since he is early enough to be a
student of Shelomoh ibn Aderet and Nissim
Gerondi is not, we can reach one of two conclusions.
One option is that Nissim Gerondi is a restatement
of this composition, (similar to what
we have mentioned in the relationship between
Nissim Gerondi («Shita» on Kedushin), and
Nissim Gerondi omitted this explanation, for the
sake of brevity or because he objected to it.
The other option is that there is a third,
Master composition, unknown to us, that served
independently as the foundation for both authors.
Our author thought it was a good idea to incorporate
Isaac of Narbonne’s remark into the composition,
Nissim Gerondi did not.
In any case this process of text dissection
and reconstruction, similar in a way to word processing,
is the central task of the authors of this
genre, which is why I have been referring to them
with the term «composers»
Here’s another text sample, one which discloses
another leading element in the construction
of our text, which may help to disclose its
identity.
On page 3, is a restatement of an article in
Rashi, relating to R. Aqiba’s (Baraita) on 16a in
(Bavli) (par. 555 in Hilkhot Alfasi):
GERONA FRAGMENT
ISAAC OF NARBONNE
Fragm. 4, f. 2r (Fig. 4)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
8.
So too in Yom Tov Asevilli’s Novellae to
Bavli, Rosh ha-Shanah, this article of Isaac of
Narbonne is copied, and the additional remark
that enhances the question in line 1 is also there.
We know that Yom Tov Asevilli authored a glosssupplement
to different tractates of Hilkhot
Alfasi. The complete composition on Alfasi
Ta‘anit is extant, as is testified to in the colophon
of its ms. (although in all the printed editions,
starting with Amsterdam 1729, it was published
as if it were Novellae on Talmud).
In his well known Novellae on Talmud, Yom
Tov Asevilli refers to this composition on Hilkhot
Alfasi on Mo‘ed Qatan, possibly Berakhot, and
in our tractate Rosh ha-Shanah.
In fact, as Yom Tov Asevilli’s editor Eliahu
Lichtenstein points out, some of the material in
the composition on Alfasi may have been copied
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