Critical The period of the Tosafot began immediately after Rashi had written his commentary; the first tosafists were Rashi's sons-in-law and grandsons, and the Tosafot consist mainly of strictures on Rashi's commentary. Tosafot are critical and explanatory glosses on the Talmud, printed, in almost all editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes. The authors of the Tosafot are known as Tosafists ("ba'ale ha-tosafot"). For what reason these glosses are called "tosafot" is a matter of dispute among modern scholars. Many of them, including Graetz, think the glosses are so called as additions to Rashi's commentary on the Talmud. In fact, the The period of the Tosafot began immediately after Rashi had written his commentary; the first tosafists were Rashi's sons-in-law and grandsons, and the Tosafot consist mainly of strictures on Rashi's commentary. Others, especially Weiss, object that many tosafot, particularly those of Isaiah di Trani, have no reference to Rashi. Weiss, followed by other scholars, asserts that "tosafot" means "additions" to the Talmud, that is to say, they are an extension and development of the Talmud. For just as the Gemara is a critical and analytical commentary on the Mishnah, so are the Tosafot critical and analytical glosses on those two parts of the Talmud. Further, the term "tosafot" was not applied for the first time to the glosses of Rashi's continuators, but to the Tosefta, the additions to the Mishnah compiled by Judah ha-Nasi I. "Tosefta" is a Babylonian term, which in Palestinian writings is replaced by "tosafot" (see Yer. Pe'ah ii. 17a; Lev. R. xxx. 2; Cant. R. vi. 9; Eccl. R. v. 8). The Tosafot resemble the Gemara in other respects also, for just as the latter is the work of different schools carried on through a long period, so the former were written at different times and by different schools, and gathered later into one body.
==Character.==
*; [[Judah ben Nathan]] (RIBaN): Son-in-law and pupil of Rashi, and to a great extent his continuator. It was Judah who completed Rashi's commentary on Makkot (from 19b to the end) and who wrote the commentary on Nazir which is erroneously attributed to Rashi. He wrote, besides, independent commentaries on 'Erubin, Shabbat, Yebamot (Eliezer b. Joel ha-Levi, "Abi ha-'Ezri," §§ 183, 385, 397, 408), and Pesaḥim ("Semag," prohibition No. 79). Finally, Halberstam manuscript No. 323 contains a fragment of Judah's commentary on Nedarim. It is generally considered that Judah b. Nathan wrote tosafot to several treatises of the Talmud, and he is mentioned as a tosafist in "Haggahot Mordekai" (Sanh., No. 696). He is often quoted in the edited tosafot.
*; [[Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg]]
*; Levi: His tosafot are quoted in the "Mordekai" (B. M. iv., end).
*[http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/TalmudMap/Tosafot.html Tosafot] note by Prof. Eliezer Segal
