“The Tosafist redactions that emerged in the late thirteenth century were edited commentaries that contained the integrated teachings of the Tosafist masters of the past century and a half”

The Tosafist redactions that emerged in the late thirteenth century were edited commentaries that contained the integrated teachings of the Tosafist masters of the past century and a half. Certainly, the redactions were not identical. Each editor produced his redaction by drawing from his own unique sources. Although most of these sources were rooted in the Dampierre academy of Ri and his students, there were nonetheless discrepancies in language, nuance in presentation, and even differences in content. Even within a single tractate, an editor may have drawn from multiple sources and hence varied opinions can appear even within a single tractate. This is certainly true between tractates, where an editor may have drawn from completely different sources.

The earliest printers made concerted attempts to procure one single redaction of Tosafot on the entire Talmud.This would at least provide a modicum of consistency on the final level of editing and redaction. Yet their efforts were unsuccessful, and the printed Tosafot in modern-day editions of the Talmud are from varied editors and are attributable to numerous sources.

Aryeh Leibowitz, “The Emergence and Development of Tosafot on the Talmud”, Hakirah 15 (Summer 2013), 162.