Скачать или смотреть Rabbeinu Gershom, the Light of the Exile: Leadership, Decrees, and the Ashkenazic Legacy

The sources survey the life and legacy of Rabbeinu Gershom, the Light of the Exile, a key figure in the leadership of Ashkenazic Jewry in the 11th century and the founder of the yeshiva of Mainz. He is best known for the decrees and bans he enacted, foremost among them the prohibition of polygamy and the requirement of a woman’s consent for divorce—measures that fundamentally reshaped the structure of the Jewish family. Beyond matters of marital law, his enactments protected the privacy of correspondence and called for a compassionate attitude toward forced converts returning to Judaism, set against the backdrop of religious persecutions and his own painful personal story of a son who converted. The sources also emphasize his activity as a liturgical poet and as the author of an early commentary on the Talmud, works that laid the foundation for Rashi’s scholarship and for the formation of an independent European halakhic identity. His influence remained decisive throughout the generations, and the title “Light of the Exile” reflects his role in transferring the center of Torah learning from Babylonia to the West.