Isaac ben Samuel of Dampierre, often known as Ri ha-Zaken, was a leading figure in the Tosafist movement. The Tosafists were active in Northern France during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Their dialectical approach to interpretation of the Talmud and other classic rabbinic texts created a revolution in Jewish intellectual life. This volume gathers, for the first time, 140 responsa written by Isaac of Dampierre in response to questions of practical law and legal interpretation. Each responsum was edited according to the most accurate manuscripts, with a critical apparatus and extensive historical and textual notes. The introduction explores Isaac of Dampierre’s life and thought as they emerge from the responsa.

Table of Contents Tefillin Blessing in Eretz Israel and in‰·EE ‡I ‰·EE ‡I„ „Ú (A Note to DavidTefillin Blessing inBook Review Ronnie Goldstein A New Look at Deuteronomy 32:8-9 and 43 in the Light of Akkadian Sources 5 Shraga Bar-On and Yakir Paz ‘The Lord’s Allotment is his People’: The Myth of the Election of Israel by Casting of Lots and the Gnostic–Christian–Pagan– Jewish Polemic 23 David Rosenthal Babylonia 63 Shlomo Naeh Rosenthal’s Article, ‘Eretz Israel and in Babylonia’) 87 Aharon Mondschein On Rashbam’s Rediscovered ‘Lost Commentary’ on Psalms 91 Avraham (Rami) Reiner An Addition to M. Beit-Arié’s Article, ‘An Unusual Method of Rendering the Date From the Creation in Hebrew Manuscripts’ 143 Miriam Frenkel The Forgotten Road to India: A Monumental Study of Medieval Jewish India Traders

Table of Contents: Alexander Rofé - Text-Criticism within the Philological-Historical Discipline: The Problem of the Double Text of Jeremiah Jonathan Ben-Dov - Hebrew and Aramaic Writing in the Pseudepigrapha and the Qumran Scrolls: The Ancient Near Eastern Background and the Quest for a Written Authority Itamar Kislev - The Commentaries of Ibn Ezra and Rashbam and the Dispute over the Ingredients of the Altar Incense Yair Lorberbaum - Changes in Maimonides’ Approach to Aggadah Rami Reiner - ‘A Tombstone Inscribed’: Titles Used to Describe the Deceased in Tombstones from Würzburg between 1147–1148 and 1346