The Ashkenazi Rabbi Who Changed Sephardic Divorce Law

A Dispute Over Script: What Makes a Kosher Get (Write of Divorce)?

One of the most intriguing halachic debates in the laws of gittin (Jewish divorce) revolves around the proper script used to write the document. Is it valid if written in ketav rahut—the common cursive Hebrew used in notebooks and letters—or must it be written in ketav ashurit, the traditional square script used in Torah scrolls?

According to the Beit Yosef, Sephardic communities historically permitted gittin written in cursive, and this was common practice in many regions. However, the influential Ashkenazi posek Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, known as the Bach, took a strong opposing stance. Citing an earlier authority, he wrote:

“I saw a get written in cursive that came from Damascus to Jerusalem and was brought before our great master Rabbi Yitzchak Asir HaTikvah, and he was furious.”

The Bach recounts that after this incident, the widespread Sephardic practice of using cursive in gittin was largely abandoned. He notes that gittin arriving from Salonika, Egypt, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire were henceforth written exclusively in ketav ashurit.

This reaction was recorded in the Mordechai, a foundational Ashkenazi halachic work that was widely annotated by later generations. But who was this Rabbi Yitzchak Asir HaTikvah? And how did an Ashkenazi rabbi’s ruling come to shape Sephardic custom?

From the Ashes of Europe to the Heights of Jerusalem

Rabbi Yitzchak was born at the start of the 14th century in the village of Bilstein in Germany’s Rhine Valley. A student of Rabbi Alexander of Erfurt, author of the Aguddah, he eventually became Rosh Yeshiva in Worms (Wormeza), one of the great centers of Ashkenazi Torah learning.

Tragedy struck in 1349 with the outbreak of the Black Death pogroms, in which Rabbi Yitzchak’s teacher was murdered and the Jewish communities of the Rhineland were devastated. Rabbi Yitzchak survived and relocated to Heidelberg, where he rebuilt Jewish life and founded a new yeshiva.

Still reeling from the trauma and seeking both physical and spiritual renewal, Rabbi Yitzchak introduced stringencies in kashrut (the laws of kosher), particularly regarding blemishes in animal lungs, as a way to uplift his community’s observance.

But Rabbi Yitzchak’s vision went beyond rebuilding in exile. He believed that the only true hope for the Jewish people (tikvah) was in Eretz Yisrael. Few agreed at the time, given the immense hardships facing Jews in Israel. But Rabbi Yitzchak was resolute. He began signing his letters Yitzchak Asir HaTikvah (“Yitzchak, captive of hope”), and when the community of Heidelberg was stabilized, he handed over leadership to Rabbi Meir ben Baruch and set off for Jerusalem in 1350 with several dozen students.

A Clash of Customs

In Jerusalem, Rabbi Yitzchak founded what is believed to be the first Ashkenazi yeshiva in the city. Until then, the Torah scholars of Jerusalem were mainly Sephardic, hailing from Egypt, Salonika, Constantinople, and Syria. Rabbi Yitzchak’s presence marked a turning point. European Jews now felt directly connected to Jerusalem’s spiritual leadership, and support from Ashkenazi communities began flowing to the yeshiva.

However, the cultural divide between Ashkenazim and Sephardim led to tension. When Rabbi Yitzchak encountered a get written in cursive script, common in Sephardic lands, he was appalled. His objection had a lasting impact: the practice was largely abandoned, and gittin in most Sephardic communities began to be written only in ketav ashurit.

Rabbi Yitzchak led his Jerusalem yeshiva for about twenty years until his passing. His students continued to rule in his name, signing decisions as “the remnants of the assembly of our master Rabbi Yitzchak HaLevi Asir HaTikvah, of blessed memory, who founded and charged us with this yeshiva before his death.”

One of his students was Rabbi Menachem Tzioni, who traveled from Germany to study under him. Though the exact date of Rabbi Yitzchak’s death is unknown, his influence endured for generations.

The Rabbi Whose “Hope” Shaped Halachic History

Rabbi Yitzchak Asir HaTikvah’s legacy lies not only in halachic rulings or institutional leadership but in his deep conviction that the future of the Jewish people rested in the Land of Israel. His vision, rare in his time, paved the way for centuries of Jewish support for the Holy Land and set a precedent for integrating Ashkenazi halachic rigor into the diverse fabric of Jerusalem’s spiritual life.