While denouncing the intentional ideal of cultural...

While denouncing the intentional ideal of cultural integration advocated by the Jewish Enlightenment (the Haskalah ), the cultural hybridity of ancient Jewish Hellenism and medieval Jewish Arabism is described as exceptional and marginal; historical mistakes or mere responses to communicational needs of the masses.[^79] Obviously Bialik explicitly embraces the nationalist worldview according to which language and law are not only outcomes of national history but also derivations of its very nature.

In that respect, Bialik reflects a Zionist conviction that the two national enterprises – the revival of the Hebrew language and the parallel attempts to revitalize the Halakhic heritage to become a modern state law – manifest the essential nature of the nation. Consequently, Jewish jurisprudence was taken as self-defining project, in which the comparative perspective helped to particularize Jewish law as rooted in the nation’s soul.

With such a monothetic approach the compared objects are viewed as elements of a wider holistic framework that stands as the collective identity. Therefore, comparative law is a process of reconfirming national separatist identity and mainly about stressing differences vis-à-vis other national legal systems. In contrast, the medieval courtier Moses ibn Ezra provides a different account of himself and his entourage as conscious assimilators into the Arabic culture.

In his view his Jewish identity is absolutely consistent with the hybrid consciousness of Judo-Arabic writers: … since our monarchy was revoked and our people spread [all over] and the nations inherited us and the sects enslaved us, we followed their patterns, lived their lives, pursued their virtues, spoke their language and tracked them and all their ways.

As written: But they mingled with the nations and learned their practices .[^80] And later on said: so that the holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands ,[^81] apart from matters of law and religion. And because of the exile and the changes of natural climates, the master of necessity has brought us to be like them.

In an elegant style, Ibn Ezra neutralizes criticism of the Israelites’ assimilation among the Canaanites and the intermingling of the exiled Jews with indigenous peoples. Instead he proposes viewing their acculturations as natural and necessary processes.