The Great Medieval Rabbi Who Synthesized the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Traditions

By the 13th century, three distinct strands of rabbinic thought and scholarship had emerged: a Spanish and North African school, influenced by Arabic science and philosophy, that focused on grammar, theology, and using the Talmud to establish practical legal rulings; the school of the Ḥasidei Ashkenaz, or German pietists, centered in the Rhineland, that focused on meticulous observance, asceticism, moral perfection, and a unique variety of mysticism; and the school of the Tosafists (centered in northeastern France), who focused on sophisticated analysis of talmudic dialectics. Rabbi Asher ben Yeḥiel (ca. 1250–1327)—known as “the Rosh”—would bring these three strands together, as Tamar Marvin explains: