54 Walter Jacob Empire disintegrated, local authorities in various lands assumed judicial authority as they had earlier in Southern and Central Europe . As local rulers were generally quite willing to permit internal autonomy to the Jewish communities, the system of courts and their sentences followed the talmudic pattern with amplification as needed.

As the earlier talmudic law had frequently gone beyond the ueyritten law” with only a slender scriptural connection, so the post-talmudic courts found ways to expand the“oral law” when the need arose. Often steps taken as temporary measures became permanent. The Tanaim had already made a modification by allowing the selection of lay judges by the litigants; the Amoraim went further, so that a single“expert” could adjudicate. Now deci­sion in monetary matters would be made by judges who did not possess the ancient ordination which ceased in the fourth century.

Whipping and the death penalty were theoretically limited, but continued.®® A new series of punishments was imposed through takkanot(communal decrees), often intended only as temporary, but they usually became permanent. Legislation established by a city or provincial assembly of scholars as well as individual decisions of local rabbis were to be obeyed because “of the needs of the time” and this could and did lead to a long list of penalties.®

These changes also influenced punishments which often were dictated by the need to protect the community. The ancient requirements as modified in the rabbinic literature made it very difficult to convict anyone as the laws of evidence often required specific warnings or precise corroboration; they did, however, truly protect the individual. Much of this was part of a general medieval need for solidarity in the face of a hostile world and the emphasis on the society rather than the individual.

On the other hand, some types of punishment disappeared entirely, for example the ordeal of the sotah, was not mentioned again. Even trial by ordeal was quite common among neighbor­ing cultures in the medieval period, it was not found among Jews .

The death penalty which continued during the talmudic period, despite occasional objections, was fully enforced, except in the Gaonic period and it was used for new situations, for example on informers who were a danger to the entire commu­nity; the struggle against them was considered a war to be

waged without mercy. The ordinary murderer was also executed