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Germany in Rabbenu Asher ben Yehiel's responsa even though this scholar
spent much of his life there. He seeks the answer in the different
approaches to halakha in Spain and Germany and suggests that the
responsa w e r e collected by his son R. Ya'akov as a preliminary step in
creating his m o n u m e n t a l work, the Tur.

Professor Ta-Shma, w h o teaches in the Talmud Department at the
Hebrew University, is the director of the Institute for Microfilming Hebrew
Manuscripts in the Jewish National University Library.

The Spiritual-Intellectual Decline of the Jewish Community in Spain at
the End of the Fourteenth Century
Dr. Dov Schwartz identifies a heretofore u n k n o w n group of neo-Platonic
rationalist thinkers in late fourteenth century Spain, whose thought reveals
a decline in the status of halakha and the observance of c o m m a n d m e n t s
and w h o were the object of harsh criticism by more traditionalist circles.

Dr. Schwartz teaches J e w i s h thought at Bar Man University.

Poor and Rich in Jewish Society in Mediterranean Spain
Dr. Yom Tov Assis examines J e w i s h society in Castile and A r a g o n in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a period during which Christian Spain
consolidated the reconquest of Muslim Spain. He discusses social,
economic and political ramifications of this situation for J e w i s h society and
particularly for the social gap between its components and the tensions
between poor and rich. He points out the distinction between the response
of rich and poor, on the whole, to the massacres and forced conversions of
1391.

Dr. Assis lectures on Jewish history at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem.

Jaco Cachopo, the Last Procurador de las Aljamas of Castile before the
Expulsion
Professor Haim Beinart introduces a hitherto u n k n o w n personality, Jaco
Cachopo, the last procurador de las aljamas de nuestros reynos, w h o
operated in Castile immediately prior to the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.
Cachopo came into conflict w i t h A b r a h a m Senor, the last rab de la corte, but
the results of the conflict are unknown as is Cachopo's fate in the expulsion.

Professor Beinart, who was awarded the Israel Prize for Jewish History in
1991, is a professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

An Examination of the Texts of the General Edict of Expulsion
Dr. Moshe Orfali and D r M.A. Motis Dolader present a comparative analysis
of t w o versions of the edict of expulsion. The better known version,
published by Baer, is that of Castile and the lesser known, published here
for the first time, is that of Aragon. This analysis reinforces the hypothesis
that the Spanish Inquisition stood behind the decision of the Catholic
Monarchs to expel the Jews because of their influence on the conversos,
but adds new accusations not mentioned in the Castilian text.

Dr. Orfali teaches Jewish history at Bar llan University; Dr. Motis Dolader
teaches law at the University of Saragossa.