“The third element of the Tosafist enterprise, and the final stage chronologically, was the process of editing”

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The third element of the Tosafist enterprise, and the final stage chronologically, was the process of editing. In this stage, Tosafist attention turned from elucidation of the Talmud, original dialectics, and integration of early sources, and instead focused on the specific needs of presentation and clarification. Previously identified contradictions in the Talmud needed to be presented in a clear format, resolutions demanded skillful formulations, and creative insights of earlier masters required proper expression.

Historically, periods of literary creativity are often followed by periods of collation and organization. It was the realization of these later goals that was sought out by the Tosafists who flourished in the generations following Ri’s students. Indeed, two general periods of Tosafist activity can be delineated, one categorized as an era of creativity, the second of collation and organization. The first extended until the death of Ri’s primary students, at which point “the creative period of the Tosafists comes to an end.” The second consisted of the remainder of the thirteenth century, when the Tosafists edited, “arranged and packaged the intellectual revolution of the twelfth [century].”

Aryeh Leibowitz, “The Emergence and Development of Tosafot on the Talmud”, Hakirah 15 (Summer 2013), 159-160.

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