Sources: Rashi, Talmud and Bible commentaries (~1040–1105 AD); Tosafot (12th–14th century Franco-German Talmudists); Maimonides vs. Rashi on legal questions; the Rama (Moses Isserles) glosses on the Shulchan Aruch.

Ashkenazic Judaism (from Ashkenaz — Germany in medieval Hebrew) is the cultural and religious tradition of Jews of Central and Eastern European origin — the community that became the numerical majority of world Jewry by the early modern period and whose influence dominates modern Jewish life. Ashkenazic culture developed in the Rhineland Jewish communities of the 9th–12th centuries, shaped by: (1) Rashi’s commentaries (~1040–1105 AD) — the most widely studied biblical and Talmudic commentaries in Jewish history, combining clarity with depth and using Old French glosses for difficult terms; (2) The Tosafot — the school of Rashi’s students and descendants who produced dialectical super-commentaries on the Talmud, creating the characteristic Ashkenazic analytical method; (3) Piyyut (liturgical poetry) — a rich tradition of synagogue poetry; (4) Martyrdom culture — Ashkenazic communities faced repeated massacres (Crusades 1096, Black Death pogroms 1348–50, Cossack massacres 1648–49, pogroms, Holocaust) that shaped a theological culture centering on kiddush Hashem (sanctification of God’s name through martyrdom). The Yiddish language (Judeo-German) was the vernacular of Ashkenazic Jewry for a millennium. The great divide between Ashkenazic (Germanic, Talmudic, rationalist) and Sephardic (Mediterranean, philosophical, mystical) Jewish cultures shaped the development of Hasidism, Neo-Orthodoxy, and the Zionist movement.