This inquiry examines Le Recueil des Loix, Coutumes, et Usages Observes par les Juifs de Metz. Evocative of the medieval German Sachsenspiegel, the volume’s detailed regulations supply a rich portrait of a Jewish community in Alsace-Lorraine during the turbulent final decades of the ancien regime. While France evolved during these decades from feudalism to democracy, the Jews transitioned from serfs main-mortables or royal chattels to citizenship. Ideals of the emerging French democracy were imprinted upon the Code Napoleon (1805), a distinctively anti-feudal, secular expression of French citizens’ newfound autonomy. In contrast, the Recueil originated in an act of will on the part of the Jews’ overlords. In accordance with royal orders, it was deposited in the records of the royal court at Metz in about 1742; royal judges and members of the bar consulted the Recueil in all manner of disputes involving Jewish litigants and Jewish law. The Recueil, as the handiwork of eighteenth century Alsatian Jews, was unique in engrafting Jewish law and ethics upon French law of the ancien regime.

该查询考察了Le Recueil des Loix，Coutumes等人的用法，并观察了Jutzs de Metz。该卷唤起中世纪的德国人Sachsenspiegel，详细的规定提供了在古代政权动荡的最后几十年中阿尔萨斯-洛林的犹太社区的丰富肖像。在过去的几十年中，法国从封建主义向民主制演变，而犹太人则从农奴制主要罪犯过渡或皇家动产获得公民身份。新兴的法国民主国家的理想被印在《拿破仑法典》（1805年）上，这是法国公民新发现的自治的一种明显的反封建，世俗的表达方式。相反，Receilil起源于犹太人霸主的一种意志行为。根据皇室命令，大约在1742年将其存放在梅斯皇室的记录中；皇家法官和律师协会成员就涉及犹太诉讼人和犹太法律的各种纠纷向Recueil咨询。Recueil是18世纪阿尔萨斯犹太人的手工作品，在将犹太法律和道德规范纳入古代法国政权方面是独一无二的。