Historical Background to Nahmanides’ Acre Sermon for Rosh ha-Shanah: The Strengthening of the Catalonian Center

Abstract

This study identifies literary testimony of the conflict over the nature of the Rosh ha-Shanah prayer in Nahmanides’ Sermon. Acre was in the 13th century home to rival Talmudic academies. In his Sermon for Rosh ha-Shanah, Ramban confronts the founding figures of the Tosafist community in the city. His ongoing controversy with contemporary sages can be read between the lines. Aside from brief segments, the majority of its Halakhic section is specifically aimed at opposing the Tosafists’ rulings, and the way in which material was chosen also highlights its polemical aim. In Ramban’s Novellae, he does not hesitate to argue with Tosafist and Andalusian-Geonic Halakhic rulings. Yet in the Sermon, he prefers citing reservations he had about the former. In the 13th century the intellectual momentum of the Tosafists came to a halt, simultaneous to the flourishing of Ramban’s study hall, and many Talmudic innovations were collected in the Novellae written by Ramban and his disciples. This transition forms an intellectual turning point in Talmud study. The confrontation among the academies in Acre may be viewed as a microcosm of this process.