The Yerushalmi shel Tsarfatim and its Relationship to Sefer Yerushalmi: Preliminary Results

An enigmatic expression Yerushalmi shel Tsarfat/im (Yerushalmi of France/the French) is known so far to appear twice in Ashkenazic medieval literature. Both times, the version of Yerushalmi shel Tsarfat/im is put in contradistinction to a ‘regular’ version of Yerushalmi. I wish to draw attention to these previously unnoticed expressions, with the hope that scholars will be able to note additional such occurrences in medieval literature. The fact that these Ashkenazic sages contrast the two versions of Yerushalmi leads me to conclude that amongst the Ashkenazic sages familiar with Sefer Yerushalmi, there was an awareness of two versions of Yerushalmi in circulation, their ‘regular’ Yerushalmi (Sefer Yerushalmi), and another ‘French’ Yerushalmi. The Yerushalmi which is contrasted to Yerushalmi shel Tsarfat can readily be identified as Sefer Yerushalmi. The identity of Yerushalmi shel Tsarfat is as of yet unresolved, although it is tempting to identify it as the Yerushalmi we know as the Leiden Yerushalmi. A byproduct of this inquiry is a contribution to the identity of the anonymous author of Piskey Berachot, and a demonstration of Prof. Sussman’s claim that the provenance of Ashkenazic literature can be identified by their use of Sefer Yerushalmi.