was a royal appointee ; this had continued to be accepted without question through the entire Gaonic period. As mentioned earlier, the rabbinic academies vied with each other over the right to propose candidates and for a long time Pumpedita was dominant; however, the ruler had the power to ignore such nominations and proceed on his own. The appointment of Isaac b. Sheshet as the leader of the Algerian community without consultation led to a bitter struggle, which was only resolved after his appointment was modified by the king.>!
The Sephardic community until modern times, as far as one can ascertain through a brief review of the responsa, continued along this path and accepted a rather wide-ranging interpretation of dina demalkhuta dina. This comported with the reality that Jews preferred to settle their fiscal affairs in the general courts and usually trusted them. Appointments made by the ruler with consultation were accepted even if reluctantly. One may well say that dina demalkhuta dina became customary and so was accepted into the halakhah as occurred with other customs, too, despite its lack of any biblical authority.*
The smaller and more compact Ashkenazic communities of early Central Europe were unwilling to go so far and saw all but the most necessary compliance with royal decree as a violation of Jewish law. If a choice between Jewish law and the king's law existed, then Jewish law was to be followed. Although they agreed with the Tosafists—who considered that the king's power stemmed from his ownership of the land he ruled,® and recognized the principle that any litigants could decide whether to use the non-Jewish or Jewish courts—it was strongly discouraged™ but continued to be reported frequently.
These Ashkenazic as well as some Sephardic authorities sought to place restrictions on the effect of Samuel's law and to limit the king's law, but that was a procedure of doubtful value and seemed intended more for internal consumption.* An effort was also made to restrict impositions and taxes of the king to those placed on all citizens, not Jews alone; although this was a nice thought, it could often not be carried into practice.’ Some sought to limit dina demalkhuta dina to new ordinances which
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