Tosafot Sens: Editions and Characteristics / תוספות שנץ: מהדורותיו ומאפייניהן

Nahmanides spent his last years in the port city of Acre. The Tosafists, immigrants from France, founded an academy in Acre called 'The Study House of the Parisians'. Nahmanides' residence in Acre, in close proximity to the study hall of the Tosafists, enabled him to become acquainted with their extensive literature. In his Sermon for the Jewish New Year, Nahmanides quoted from the two editions of the Tosafot to Rosh Hashanah of R. Shimshon of Sens. The citations found in Nahmanides' Sermon prove that the Tosafot printed on the page of the Vilna edition of Rosh Hashanah are the later version of the Tosafot of R. Shimshon of Sens, and that the collection of Tosafot on Rosh Hashanah that were printed under the title Tosafot Yeshanim is the earlier version. By comparing the two versions we focused on three major differences between them. The first version quoted very little from the Palestinian Talmud, and the later version utilizes this source. R. Solomon b. Isaac is called Rashi in the early edition, while in the later edition his comments are entitled 'Kuntras'. R. Isaac b. Samuel of Dampierre, the teacher of R. Shimshon, is quoted many times in the earlier Tosafot Yeshanim, but in the Vilna edition his ideas are quoted anonymously. In the article we tried to understand the historical background of these changes. We also classified the Tosafot collections in other tractates according to the parameters we outlined.