Tolerance in the Middle Ages :: essays research papers

The issue of acceptance has and perpetually leave alone be a strong and influential topic among peoples of all heathen and culture backgrounds. The same is true for the issue of sacred toleration, in the geek beingness between the Jews and the Christians in Medieval Europe. It is argued between R. Menahem ha-meir and Katz that the word toleration is non simply an explanation of the sequences, but rather a imitative impression of the truth. The truth in this case being, that the Jews and Christians wanted closing off and separatism from each other trance at the same time being able to co-exist together in their respective societies.By looking at the Katz text, it is plain to lift up that his main argument on the topic of religious toleration is that these two groups of people in this time period did thence desire separation and exclusiveness from each other. The problem that stemmed from this isolation was the difficulty in making all(prenominal)day life work for two r eligious groups while at the same time keeping them apart(predicate) from one another as much as possible. Furthermore, we see the make out defined by Katz which describes the Jews and the difficulty they faced in translating their ancient texts to every day life scenarios. Much of what was written in the Aggadah and the Halakha was not always applicable to these past every day situations, so we begin to see a redefining and stretching of the sayings in the ancient text and the politics of the time in order to better suit the people and not lop off the economy, society, etc. For example, we see the Jews now being able to represent themselves in court because of the new technicality which allows the oath to be taken. It is now allowed because the Christian taking the oath is swearing on a ?composite? beau ideal and more technically, a piece of paper which the Jews do not accredit as true authority (The Gospels). This shows how the social realities had changed and how the Jews ha d adapted to the situations by not getting rid of the text, but by instead articulating the text while maintaining exclusiveness. On the other hand, R. Menahem ha-meir says in his article that toleration needs to be understood contextually, as in Katz?s work, however he overly stresses that the need for the isolation and separation should be looked at strictly in its historical environment along with the already specific religious assumptions that the Christians and Jews hasten towards one another.