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pear by the middle of the eighteenth century. Jews along with oth­ers became restless and sought to eliminate old disabilities, but this also meant taking on new responsibilities which came with such privileges. The boundaries of dina demalkhuta dina would need to be altered. Jewish corporate existence in the Ashkenazic lands had meant that Jews governed themselves and the areas of possible friction existed only on the periphery in dealings with Gentiles, disputes among“Court Jews, ” and those who sought to use Gentile courts. All of this was about to change.

Emancipation

The late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries saw the emergence of larger, more powerful, national entities in central Europe . This meant a change in the status of various classes and groups in society. For Jews this brought a glimmer of hope for more rights. In the lands of Eastern Europe all of this was to take longer and the unified character of Ashkenazic Jewry was about to change. This meant that questions from the West addressed by rabbinic authorities in Eastern European lands rarely dealt with the realities of life of the questioner, but with the facts as seen from a distance and in totally different circumstances. The west­ern rabbis eventually had to face the onrush of modernity: they were challenged by the new merchant class and its large enter­prises, the financial transactions of corporations, a much larger involvement with the non-Jewish world, and the demands of the state in matters of marriage, divorce, as well as compulsory school attendance. The world had changed drastically and dina demalkhuta dina, whose scope the Ashkenazic community had limited, now had to be considered anew.

The governments sought broader national authority through curbing the power of the cities, the clergy, and guilds. None of this was easy; it was simpler to limit the autonomy of the Jewish community and its leaders. Various privileges often had a long history, but they could be abrogated by the ruler. The new char­ter given by Frederick II of Prussia in 1750 reflected this change and limited rabbinic jurisdiction to ritual and synagogal mat­ters.” Moses Mendelssohn placed all of this into a philosophical context through his division of Judaism into“eternal truths,” available to all human beings and“revealed law,” which was

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