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The Community Structure
Decisors for Generations to Come
Most leaders of Ashkenaz Jewry were also important decisors – authorities on Jewish law
– who instituted various regulations that governed the life of the community.
Rabbenu Gershom Me’or Ha-Golah (960-1028) introduced a prohibition against a man marrying more than one woman,
in addition to a prohibition that banned a man from divorcing his wife against her will.
At the time, the regulations instituted by Rabbenu Gershom completely transformed the status of women.
150 years later, Rabbenu Tam (Rabbi Jacob ben Meir, 1100-1171),
who was a grandson of Rashi and one of the most eminent tosafists,
helped form French Jewry into a single community, headed by him and his religious court.
