ITALIA JUDAICA. Atti del I Convegno internazionale. Bari 18-22 ...

ment of rabbinic literature in France, Provence, and Spain, we must avoid
oversimplification or reductionism by being attentive to the difference between
oral and /tterary culture; \Ve must be careful to equate literary productivity
with creativity and conceptual advance, for the latter may be oral as welI.
There is something isomorphic as well as synchronic about the scheme which
he then advances. Ha-Me'iri affirms that Iiterary tradition, which should be
understood as substantive, comprehensive work which remains influential and
provides a solid stimulating basis for continuity and expansion by successors,
begins concurrently witb R. Isaac Alfasi in Spain, with Roshi in France, with
Rabad and R. Judah Albargeloni in Provence-Catalonia - the four fathers
of Talmudic study \vhose intended audience was the nation as a whole:
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