Das spirituelle Profil des aschkenasischen Judentums

Abstract The cultural-religious profile of Ashkenazi Judaism is, compared to Sephardic Judaism, mostly portrayed as stereotypically focused on studying the Talmud and discussing the Halacha. While Sephardic Judaism, and before that also Oriental Judaism, produced a rich philosophy and mystical literatures in the form of the Kabbalah, in Ashkenaz one usually tends to see the yeshiva with its merely few spiritual and theological-philosophical interests. In contrast to this common image, it should be pointed out here that in Ashkenazi Judaism there were quite a few outstanding Halacha scholars such as El’asar from Worms, the Maharal from Prague, Moses Isserles and Ḥajjim Woloshyner who created the theological foundation for the fulfillment of the commandments and the study of the Torah, who subsequently became the paradigm for Ashkenazi Orthodoxy.