Françoise Adret (7 August 1920 – 1 April 2018) was a French ballet dancer, teacher, choreographer, and company director. Her professional career, international in scope, albeit centered in France, spanned more than sixty years.Francis de Coninck, Françoise Adret: Soixante Années de Danse (Paris: Centre National de la Danse, 2007). This work contains complete biographical and professional information.
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Only half of these responsa have been published, as they number three thousand. Among his numerous students were Yom Tov Asevilli and Bahya ben Asher. A manuscript purporting to be a certificate of indebtedness, dated 1262, in favor of a certain Solomon Adret, Jew of Barcelona, and a passport for the same Adret, dated 1269, are still extant.Jacobs, "Sources," pp.
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He studied under Sonia Gaskell and Françoise Adret. Van Manen wrote many ballets. He worked for the Dutch National Ballet from 1973 to 1985.
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A small, energetic woman with a sparkling wit, Adret was generally acknowledged as a figure incontournable ("indispensable person") in twentieth-century French dance. She was praised for her work as a pedagogue and greatly admired for her unique artistic vision, which allowed her to reconcile her dance works on the cutting edge of modernity with the classic ballet repertory of yesteryear."Françoise Adret", Danse Ma Vie.
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At the close of the work are added several eulogies written by Abba Mari on Ben Adret (who died in 1310), and on Don Vidal, Solomon of Perpignan, and Don Bonet Crescas of Lunel.
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Nearing her eightieth birthday, she served in that post for an interim period of one year.Phillippe Noissette, "Invité Françoise Adret: 'Je n'ai pas peur de l'échec,'" interview, Danser (Paris), no. 188 (May 2000), pp. 8–10, 12-14.
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Adret remained with Ballet Théâtre Contemporain for ten years, until 1978, when it was subsumed by the activities of the newly established Centre National de Danse Contemporaine. She was then appointed inspector general for dance projects in the Ministry of Culture, a post she retained until 1985, when she was invited by Louis Erlo, director of the Lyon Opera, to create a new ballet company committed to contemporary choreographers. During her seven years there, until 1992, Adret put the company in the forefront of contemporary dance in France.Ginger Danto, "Lyon Opéra Ballet: Cinderella Story", Dance Magazine (September 1992), pp. 48–51.
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The proposition of the latter to prohibit, under penalty of excommunication, the study of philosophy and any of the sciences except medicine, by one under thirty years of age, met with the approval of Ben Adret. Accordingly, Ben Adret addressed to the congregation of Montpellier a letter, signed by fifteen other rabbis, proposing to issue a decree pronouncing the anathema against all those who should pursue the study of philosophy and science before due maturity in age and in rabbinical knowledge. On a Sabbath in September, 1304, the letter was to be read before the congregation, when Jacob Machir Don Profiat Tibbon, the renowned astronomical and mathematical writer, entered his protest against such unlawful interference by the Barcelona rabbis, and a schism ensued. Twenty-eight members signed Abba Mari's letter of approval; the others, under Tibbon's leadership, addressed another letter to Ben Adret, rebuking him and his colleagues for condemning a whole community without knowledge of the local conditions.
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She was recognized as one of the most innovative creators of contemporary dance in western Europe.Pierre Julien, "Entretien: Françoise Adret", Les Saisons de la Danse (Paris), no. 228 (October 1991), pp. 19–20.Bernadette Boris, "French Choreographers Creating New Worlds," Ballett International (Berlin), vol.
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Its Bibliography: Ḥiddushe Geonim on Baba Ḳamma and B. Meẓi'a, Salonica, 1728; Ḥiddushe R. Solomon b. Adret on Baba Ḳamma, Berlin, 1756; Bezalel Ashkenazi, Shiṭṭah Meḳubbeẓet on Baba Ḳamma, Baba Meẓi'a, and Baba Batra; Naḥmanides (Ramban), Baba Batra; Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, books xi., xii., xiii.
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Several times during his rabbinical career Aaron came into conflict on important points with Solomon ben Adret, the leading spirit of the Spanish Jews. On one occasion they failed to agree in the decision of a subject submitted to them, and neither being willing to acknowledge the superiority of the other, they were obliged to refer the case to the French authorities. No sooner had Adret published his important work, "Torat ha- Bayit," than Aaron submitted it to a severe but just criticism. It reflects great credit upon Aaron that he treated his opponent with the greatest deference, never allowing himself to descend to personalities.
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Asevilli was born in the city of Seville, Spain around 1260. His name, Asevilli is itself a topographic surname that identifies him as being from Seville. He was the student of Solomon ibn Adret and Aaron ha-Levy. His works suggest that he spent some time studying in France.
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Other names are formed from the words adret (sunny side of a mountain) and ubac (shady side): thus there are the Adret and the Ubac of Grou de Ban, the hamlet of Adrech at the foot of the Grou, and the Ubac farm at the foot of the Pié d'Enroux. The Combe de Vaux is a pleonastic doublet to designate a valley. The work of hydraulic erosion on limestone has created avens (sinkholes) including at least one with a specific name: the Aven de Goutin. Amplified by deforestation, the same erosion moves large quantities of stones from the mountain slopes and deposits them on the plains, sometimes covering arable land: this is the origin of the name of Gravières south of the village.
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The same thing can not be said of Adret's counter-criticism, "Mishmeret ha-Bayit" (Defense of the House), which is written in an acrimonious, not to say malicious, tone: that may perhaps be the reason that Adret published it anonymously, for it was only in later years that he acknowledged his authorship. These two distinguished pupils of Naḥmanides differed also in many other points. While Adret inclined to mysticism, Aaron treated important dogmatical questions in a fashion which was distasteful to the orthodox, as, for instance, his opinion on resurrection. Without denying resurrection, he maintained that the body would have to undergo certain changes until it acquired an ethereal nature which would permit it to appear before God and to look upon the glory of heaven.
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34) and on Baba Batra (p. 43). These quotations, and many others cited by the Arukh, prove that the commentary extended to the whole Mishnah, containing among other explanations historical and archeological notes. Some passages of the commentary are quoted by Alfasi and Hananel on Yoma, and by Solomon ibn Adret in his Hiddushim.Weiss, Dor, iv.
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Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet ( or Solomon son of Abraham son of Aderet)The name Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet may be written in many different ways. His first name is written as either Shlomo or Solomon. Aderet sometimes is spelled Adret or Adereth. "Ben", a Hebrew word, and "ibn", an Arabic word, both mean "son".
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The expulsion of the Jews from France by Philip IV ("the Fair"), in, caused the Jews of Montpellier to take refuge, partly in Provence, partly in Perpignan and partly in Majorca. Consequently, Abba Mari removed first to Arles, and, within the same year, to Perpignan, where he finally settled and disappeared from public view. There he published his correspondence with Ben Adret and his colleagues.
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For her work as inspector general of dance projects in the Ministry of Culture, Adret was made a commandeur in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1983. In recognition of her role in developing contemporary dance in France, she received the Grand Prix National de la Danse in 1987, and in 1994 she was named as a chevalier in the Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur.
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Another work which has been ascribed to Israeli, and which more than any other has given rise to controversy among later scholars, is a commentary on the "Sefer Yeẓirah." Steinschneider (in his "Al-Farabi," p. 248) and Carmoly (in Jost's "Annalen," ii. 321) attribute the authorship to Israeli, because Abraham ibn Ḥasdai (see above), and Jedaiah Bedersi in his apologetical letter to Solomon ben Adret ("Orient, Lit." xi. cols.
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In this he agreed with Solomon ben Adret. He thought it was the "sophistry" of "Greek wisdom," in which speculative knowledge was the chief end of life, which made materialists of so many prominent Jews, causing their defection from Judaism and the extinction of whole communities in Aragon and Castile. In other districts, he said, not affected by this spirit, there were thousands of Jews who would rather be killed than surrender their faith.
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Simcha of Rome was a Jewish scholar and rabbi who lived in Rome in the last quarter of the 13th century . He was given an open letter by the community and sent out to find Maimonides' Commentary on the Mishnah and bring it back with him. He traveled through Provence and Catalonia without meeting with any success. At Barcelona, he applied for assistance to Solomon ben Adret, who gave him a further letter of recommendation.
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Among these are the commentaries of Nachmanides (Ramban), Solomon ben Adret (Rashba), Yom Tov of Seville (Ritva) and Nissim of Gerona (Ran). A comprehensive anthology consisting of extracts from all these is the Shittah Mekubbetzet of Bezalel Ashkenazi. Other commentaries produced in Spain and Provence were not influenced by the Tosafist style. Two of the most significant of these are the Yad Ramah by rabbi Meir Abulafia and Bet Habechirah by rabbi Menahem haMeiri, commonly referred to as "Meiri".
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Abba Mari possessed considerable Talmudic knowledge and some poetical talent; but his zeal for the Law made him an agitator and a persecutor of all the advocates of liberal thought. Being himself without sufficient authority, he appealed in a number of letters, afterward published under the title of Minḥat Ḳenaot (Jealousy Offering), to Solomon ben Adret of Barcelona, the most influential rabbi of the time, to use his powerful authority to check the source of evil by hurling his anathema against both the study of philosophy and the allegorical interpretations of the Bible, which did away with all belief in miracles. Ben Adret, while reluctant to interfere in the affairs of other congregations, was in perfect accord with Abba Mari as to the danger of the new rationalistic systems, and advised him to organize the conservative forces in defense of the Law. Abba Mari, through Ben Adret's aid, obtained allies eager to take up his cause, among whom were Don Bonafoux Vidal of Barcelona and his brother, Don Crescas Vidal, then in Perpignan.
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The choreographer was to be Françoise Adret, with whom he had worked in London, and the ballerina was to be Galina Samsova, from London Festival Ballet, whom he had previously met in Marseille. The production proved successful, and dancing with Samsova suited Prokovsky very well, as her sparkling virtuosity matched his own.Claude Conyers (1966) "I Shall Remember Her Running," Ballet Review (New York), vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 13–23. A personal account of Samsova and Prokovsky dancing in this production.
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Aaron ben Perez of Avignon was a French rabbi and scholar; born about the middle of the thirteenth century; died in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. He was one of the leading scholars of Argentière, Languedoc, France. With other influential members of the congŕegation of Argentière, he signed an address to Solomon ben Adret during the great anti-Maimonist controversy of 1303-05. The address, with the signatures, can be found in Abba Mari Don Astruc's Minḥat Ḳenaot, § 47\.
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Ultimately he was called upon to decide the affair, and on July 26, 1305, together with his colleagues of the rabbinate of Barcelona, he pronounced the ban of excommunication (ḥerem) over all who studied physics or metaphysics before the completion of their thirtieth year. A protest against this ban may be found in a poem in which Philosophy "calls out in a loud voice against . . . Solomon ben Adret and against all the rabbis of France . . . who have placed under the ban all people who approach her".
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While there, she formed a partnership with David Adams, performing in virtuosic showcases such as Spring Waters and the Medora-Ali pas de deux from Le Corsaire, evening-length classics such as Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, and many other works. The pair won the gold medal at Il Festival de la Opera, Madrid, for their performance of Giselle. In 1966 Samsova went to Johannesburg, South Africa, to dance as guest star in yet another production of Cinderella, staged by French choreographer Françoise Adret for PACT/TRUK Ballet.
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Joshua ibn Shuaib (; ca 1280 - ca 1340) was a rabbi who lived in Spain. He was a pupil of Solomon ben Adret and the teacher of Menahem ibn Zerah and ibn Sahula.Jewish Encyclopedia: Joshua ibn Shuaib He is notable for his book of sermons on the Torah, which he seems to have written for preaching in a synagogue.The sermon for Parshat Va'etchanan notes that the date happened to be the 15th of Av. This means the year must have been one of 1304, 1307, 1311, 1331, 1335, or 1338.
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Mann returned to Panama in 1963 and was instrumental in the formation of the first ballet company in the country in 1972, the Ballet Nacional de Panama. Mann and Earl Kraul in La Bayadère. Five years later, Mann, together with Panamanian dancers, Ileana de Sola, Otilia Tejeira, Nitzia Cucalón de Martín, Armando Villamil, among others, created a group called Ballet Concierto de Panama, under the direction of Francoise Adret. The company then became the Ballet Concierto Universitario after the creation of a Department of Artistic Expressions (DEXA) at the University of Panama.
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Achot qetanah (little sister). From the city of Girona was the greatest of Catalonian sages, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban, or Nachmanides) (1194-1270), whose Catalonian name was Bonastruc ça Porta. Although the city of Girona was an important center of Torah that had a Bet Midrash (House of Study) dedicated to the study of the Kabbalah, the main city was Barcelona, where the Ramban served as the head of the community. During this period, Rabbi Yona Girondi (1210-1263) and his famous disciples Rabbi Aharon ben Yosef ha-Levi of Barcelona (Reah) (1235-1303) and Rabbi Shelomoh ben Adret (Rashba) (1235-1310).
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Under his guidance, she made her first choreography, entitled La Conjuration ("The Conspiracy"), in 1948. Based on a poem by René Char, it was set to music by Jacques Porte and had décor by Georges Braque. Later that year, Adret left the Paris Opera Ballet and became ballet mistress of Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris, touring with the company in western Europe. In 1951 she succeeded Darja Collin as director of the Ballet of the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam while continuing to work with Petit's company,Luuk Utrecht, "Netherlands: Theatrical Dance since 1945", International Encyclopedia of Dance(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), vol.
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From time immemorial, science had been fostered by Jewish scholars on account of its importance for religion. This was true in greatest measure of Maimonides, who studied philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine by the aid of the Greek writers; in theology, however, he was guided by tradition, submitting even in this to the investigations of philosophy. He, Bedersi, therefore, entreats Solomon ben Adret to withdraw the excommunication for the sake of Maimonides—whose works would be studied in spite of all excommunication—for his own (Ben Adret's) sake, and for the good name of Provençal Jewish learning. The Iggeret Hitnaẓẓelut has been incorporated with Solomon ben Adret's Responsa, § 418.
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Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet, of Barcelona, studied under Hasdai Crescas and Rabbi Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi. Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi, was a steadfast Rationalist who did not hesitate to refute leading authorities, such as Rashi, Rabbeinu Tam, Moses ben Nahman, and Solomon ben Adret. The pogroms of 1391, against Jews of Spain, forced Isaac to flee to Algiers - where he lived out his life. Isaac's responsa evidence a profound knowledge of the philosophical writings of his time; in one of Responsa No. 118 he explains the difference between the opinion of Gersonides and that of Abraham ben David of Posquières on free will, and gives his own views on the subject.
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Aaron ben Joseph ha-Levi was a Spanish Talmudist and critic; a direct descendant of Zerahiah Ha-Levi, and probably, like him, a native of Girona, Spain; flourished at the end of the thirteenth century; died before 1303. About the middle of the thirteenth century he studied under Naḥmanides, at Girona, where he also met, as a fellow pupil, Solomon ben Adret, who later came to be his opponent. Aaron especially mentions among his teachers his brother Phinehas (who migrated later to Canet near Perpignan, after which place he is surnamed), and his nephew Isaac, the son of his brother Benveniste. His life appears to have been spent in Spain.
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Ashkenazi is known principally as the author of Shitah Mekubezet (Hebrew שיטה מקובצת, Gathered Interpretation). This work, as its title indicates, is a collection of glosses on the greater part of the Talmud, in the style of the Tosafot, including much original and foreign material. The great value of the Shitah lies principally in the fact that it contains numerous excerpts from Talmudic commentaries which have not otherwise been preserved. Shitah Mekubezet contains expositions of the Talmud taken from the works of the Spaniards Nahmanides, ben Adret, and Yom-Tov of Seville, and from those of the Frenchmen Abraham ben David, Baruch ben Samuel, Isaac of Chinon, etc.
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Born in Versailles, Adret began her dance training at an early age. In the 1930s she studied with the leading Franco-Russian teachers in Paris, including Victor Gsovsky and Serge Lifar. In the late 1940s, following World War II, she had a modest career with the Paris Opera Ballet, making a notable appearance at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1948 in a principal role in Lifar's production of Le Pas d'Acier ("The Steel Step"), a modern ballet about Soviet factory workers set to a score in le style mécanique by Prokofiev. From Lifar, director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1930–44, and from 1947–58, she learned much about company administration and direction.
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Adret next became artistic director and chief choreographer of the Ballet du Nord in Roubaix, where in 1994 she mounted two new versions of Symphonie de Psaumes and Le Tricorne. From 1995 to 1998 the Association Française d'Action Artistique sent her on three overseas missions, during which she taught dance classes and choreographed works in Seoul, South Korea, in Montevideo, Uruguay, and in Asunción, Paraguay. She then returned to France, working again with Roland Petit, serving as ballet mistress of his Ballet National de Marseille in 1997 and 1998. On 1 July 1999 she accepted a temporary appointment as artistic director of the Ballet de Lorraine, replacing Pierre Lacotte, who had returned to the Paris Opera Ballet.
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To these may be added the solitary volume of responsa, that of Solomon ben Adret (17). After law came prayers, of which a considerable number were printed (36, 41, 42, 47, 63, 95, 96, 97, 100); and to these may be added the tables of day durations (23)and Naḥmanides' "Sha'ar ha-Gemul" (70). Ethical works were moderately frequent (10, 31, 32, 53, 60, 61, 62, 66), which only two philosophical works received permanent form in print, Maimonides' "Moreh" (24), and Albo's "'Iḳḳarim" (38). Very few belletristic works appeared (75, 80); history is represented by Eldad ha-Dani (7) and the "Yosippon" (8); and science by Avicenna (81), in the most bulky Hebrew book printed in the fifteenth century.
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Maimonides, whose city was "a set of patios and narrow streets" and who based knowledge on hearing, was swept away by a visual understanding of politics in which the centre of common life became the Town Square, or the Aristotelian diaphanous circle.Roiz, Sociedad vigilante y mundo judío en la concepción del Estado, pp. 93–95. Roiz argues for the recovery of judgment and the trial process. He places at the centre of his thinking the confrontation between Ashkenazi figures, which were represented in Sepharad (Spain) by Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi, Nahmanides (Ramban) (1194–C. 1270) or Shlomo ibn Adret (Rashba) (1235–1310) and Sephardic figures, epitomized by Moshe ben Maimon, Maimonides (Rambam) (1135–1204).
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For example, letters 1, 5, and 8 contain a discussion on the question, whether the use of a piece of metal with the figure of a lion, as a talisman, is permitted by Jewish law for medicinal purposes, or is prohibited as idolatrous. In letter 131, Abba Mari mourns the death of Ben Adret, and in letter 132 he sends words of sympathy to the congregation of Perpignan, on the death of Don Vidal Shlomo (the Meiri) and Rabbi Meshullam. Letter 33 contains the statement of Abba Mari that two letters which he desired to insert could not be discovered by him. MS. Ramsgate, No. 52, has the same statement, but also the two letters missing in the printed copies.
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In 1965, Yvonne Mounsey staged a version of the pas de deux from Jerome Robbins's Interplay (Heen-en-weer-spel); Peter Clegg recreated Ashton's Façade; and de Villiers herself mounted Walter Gore's production of Casse Noisette (The Nutcracker, Die Neutkraker) for the Christmas season at the splendid, new Civic Theatre. Marina Grut and Jonathan Horwitz, "South Africa: Ballet," in International Encyclopedia of Dance, edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen and others (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), vol. 5, p. 654. She brought Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire to Johannesburg to stage Carmen and Françoise Adret to choreograph a new Cinderella, with Galina Samsova in the title role.Claude Conyers, "I Shall Remember Her Running," Ballet Review (Brooklyn, N.Y.), 1.5 (1966), pp. 13-23.
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Abulafia's subterranean influence is evident in the large number of manuscripts of his major meditation manuals that flourished down to the present day until all his works were finally published in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem during the 1990s. Abulafia’s prophetic and messianic pretensions prompted a sharp reaction on the part of Shelomoh ben Avraham Adret, a famous legal authority who succeeded in annihilating the influence of Abulafia’s ecstatic Kabbalah in Spain. According to Besserman's The Shambhala Guide to Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism, Abulafia's "prophetic approach to meditation included manipulating the Hebrew letters in a nondenominational context that brought him into conflict with the Jewish establishment and provoked the Inquisition." In Italy, however, his works were translated into Latin and contributed substantially to the formation of Christian Qabbalah (sic).
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Although the Jews of Catalonia had a ritual of prayerRecently, has been published the Sidur Catalunya, which constitutes the first reconstruction of the old nusach Catalonia. The siddur is based on six medieval Hebrew manuscripts (from the 14th to the 16th century) and also includes a series of commentaries, laws and customs that were compiled by a disciple of Rabbi Yona Girondi at the Talmudic academy of Barcelona. and different traditions from those of SepharadIn the halakhic and Responsa literature of the Rishonim, a clear distinction between Sepharad and Catalonia is made, both in terms of customs as regards the rites of prayer. See: Responsa of Rabbi Avraham ben David (Raabad) 131, Responsa of Rabbi Shelomoh ben Adret (Rashba) new 345, Responsa of Rabbi Yitzchaq bar Sheshet (Ribash), 79, 369.
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These poetical productions of Bedersi's youth were followed by a number of works of a more serious character, among which were: # A philosophical commentary on the Aggadah of diverse parts of the Midrashim such as Midrash Rabba, Tanhuma, Sifre, Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, and Midrash Tehillim (copies of this commentary are still extant in manuscript in several European libraries). # Iggeret Hitnaẓẓelut ("Apologetical Letter"), addressed to Shlomo ibn Aderet, who, at the instigation of Abba Mari, had pronounced an anathema against the works and partisans of Maimonides and against science in general. Bedersi, after having expressed his respect for the upright and learned rabbi of Barcelona, remarked that he and his friends were not indignant about the ban, because science was invulnerable. Their grievance was that Ben Adret should have branded the Jewish congregations of southern France as heretics.
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She then spent a few years as an international guest choreographer, staging works for Le Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas in Paris, PACT/TRUK Ballet in Johannesburg, the Warsaw Opera Ballet, the Zagreb Opera Ballet, and the Harkness Ballet in New York City. While residing in Panama, she created the Ballet Nacional de Panamá. Returning to France, Adret joined Jean-Albert Cartier in 1968 in the creation of the Ballet Théâtre Contemporain, the first national choreographic center, established in Amiens. She was choreographic director of the repertory, and for it she created some of her most notable works, including Aquathémes and Requiem.Monique Babsky, "Ballet-Théâtre Contemporain," in International Encyclopedia of Dance (1998), vol. 1, pp. 349–51. In 1972, the company moved from Amiens to Angers and embarked on its first tour of North America.Anna Kisselgoff, "Ballet Théâtre Contemporain: French troupe starts first tour in Brooklyn," New York Times (10 November 1972).
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Dan, however, was so imprudent as to give a letter of recommendation to a youth who pretended to be a prophet (compare Abraham Of Avila); and when the latter turned it to account, Solomon Adret cast scorn upon the German rabbi in his circular letter on the pseudoprophet.Adret's Responsa, No. 548 Even before this occurrence the relations between these two men do not seem to have been very friendly, since Dan declared at Saragossa that, from the strict point of view of the Halakah, there could be no objection to the slaughtering of animals by Christians, as the reason given in the Talmud for forbidding the slaughtering of animals by pagans did not apply to Christians; for the pagan regarded the slaughtering as a sacrifice to his idols, while the same could not be said of the Christians.ib. No. 529; but Dan's reasons are not clearly stated Dan, who was a person of much individuality, was misunderstood by many, and acts were ascribed to him which he certainly did not commit.ib. No. 530 Adret's five responsaNos.
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Finally, the agitation for and against the liberal ideas brought about a schism in the entire Jewish population in southern France and Spain. Encouraged, however, by letters signed by the rabbis of Argentière and Lunel, and particularly by the support of Kalonymus ben Todros, the nasi of Narbonne, and of the eminent Talmudist Asheri of Toledo, Ben Adret issued a decree, signed by thirty-three rabbis of Barcelona, excommunicating those who should, within the next fifty years, study physics or metaphysics before their thirtieth year of age (basing his action on the principle laid down by Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed part one chapter 34), and had the order promulgated in the synagogue on Sabbath, July 26, 1305. When this heresy- decree, to be made effective, was forwarded to other congregations for approval, the friends of liberal thought, under the leadership of the Tibbonites, issued a counter-ban, and the conflict threatened to assume a serious character, as blind party zeal (this time on the liberal side) did not shrink from asking the civil powers to intervene. But an unlooked-for calamity brought the warfare to an end.
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Its splendor was between the 12th to 14th centuries, in which two important Torah centers flourished in Barcelona and Girona. The Catalan Jewish community developed unique characteristics, which included customs, a prayer rite (Nusach Catalonia),According to Rabbi Yitzhaq Luria Ashkenazi (Arizal), nusach Catalonia is one of the 12 existing nusachim that correspond to the 12 tribes of Israel (Rabbi Chayim Vital, Sefer Shaar ha-Kavanot, nusach ha-tefillah, the secret of the 12 doors). Regarding the different traditions and customs, the Arizal divides the people of Israel into four major families: Sepharad, Ashkenaz, Catalonia and Italy (Sheneh Luchot ha-Berit, Torah she-bikhtav, Bemidbar). and a tradition of its own in issuing legal decisions (Halakhah).Rabbi Shimon ben Tzemach Duran (Rashbatz) mentions on several occasions that in Catalonia tradition was ruled according to the opinions of Rabbi Shelomoh ben Adret (Rashba) while in Sepharad was ruled according to the opinions of Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel (Rosh), Rabbi Yaaqov ben Asher (Baal ha-Turim) and Rabbi Moshe ben Maymon (Rambam): «In Catalonia the halachic decisions are followed according to Rashba, while in Sepharad are followed according to Baal ha-Turim and Rambam» (reference: Tashbetz, vol 3, 257, see also: Tashbetz vol 2, 141, vol 3, 86, vol 3, 118, vol 4, column 3, 10).
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