At the heart of this system was an Aristotle-esque assumption that proper-
tied individuals were the best suited to act in the best interests of the
community. As one of Rabbenu Gershom’s statutes eloquently concluded,
“All decisions according to the view of communal elders, the customs of old,
and the needs of the day.” Beyond the general rights of adjudication and
ostracism, these statutes empowered communal leaders to protect individual
and communal property (Herem ha-Ikkul) and to decide whether or not a new-
comer could join the community (Herem ha-Yishuv). In addition, communal
leaders had the right to impose communal taxes to support communal insti-
tutions and send a communal donation to the Jews in the Land of Israel.
Communal leaders also derived a a notion of majority rule – not the mod-
ern democratic notion, to be sure, rather the right of the majority to coerce
the minority to concur. To counterbalance the power of the majority, the
authority of the leadership, and the natural influence of the affluent, individ-
ual members were given ways to voice a grievance by interrupting the prayer
service in the synagogue. In such a case, the service could not resume until the
grievance was redressed to the satisfaction of the plaintiff.
At the center of this new communal administration was the first great
Ashkenazic rabbi, Gershom ben Meir, commonly known as Rabbenu Gershom
(mentioned earlier). He had come to Mayence from Italy. Beyond helping to
establish a system of communal administration, he established rabbinic learn-
ing in France on a sound basis, reintroduced the lawmaking function of the
rabbi, and united the scattered communities of the Ashkenazic world into a
federation by establishing a measure of uniformity in the face of local cus-
toms. His decrees (takkanot), approved by rabbinic synods, dealt mainly with
marriage, social relations, and intercommunal relations.
Most famous is his ban on polygamy. This ban reflected an economic con-
cern that Jewish men in an upstart communal and commercial world would
have difficulty supporting more than one wife; and a concern lest the Jews be
the only ones practicing polygamy in a monogamous Christian society. He
also prohibited a husband from divorcing his wife against her will without
the consent of the court, a marked deviation from classical rabbinic law.
With respect to social relations, he prohibited the insulting of former
apostates who converted back to Judaism, the renting of domiciles from gen-
tile tenants who had evicted Jews, and the reading of private mail. With
respect to intercommunal relations, he extended the jurisdiction of a Jewish
court to any Jew who happened to be in the community concerned, even non-
residents. He allowed an individual to interrupt the prayers only after the
individual had made three bona fide attempts to redress his grievance at the
end of service. He disallowed the owners of synagogues from excluding any-
one from attending. He required anyone with information regarding a lost
article to come forward once the owner had made a public declaration.
Rabbenu Gershom’s accomplishments with respect to communal administra-
tion marked the first step in the development of the Ashkenazic world.
The Jews of medieval Christendom 79