Name Meir Rothenburg | ||
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Died May 2, 1293, Wasserburg am Inn, Germany | ||
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Meir of Rothenburg (c. 1215 – 2 May 1293) was a German Rabbi and poet, a major author of the tosafot on Rashi's commentary on the Talmud. He is also known as Meir ben Baruch, the Maharam of Rothenburg. Rabbi Menachem Meiri referred to Rab Meir of Rothenberg, as the "greatest Jewish leader of Zarfat" alive at the time, Zarfat is Medieval Hebrew for France which was a reference to Charlemagne's rule of Germany.
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Biography
Rabbi Meir was born between 1215 and 1220 in Worms. He comes from a long line of rabbis. His first teacher was his father. He continued his training in Würzburg under Isaac ben Moses of Vienna and in France, where he remained until 1242, his teachers being Yechiel of Paris, Samuel ben Solomon of Falaise, and Samuel of Évreux, witnessing the burning of the Talmud on June 17, 1244, in Paris. He then settled in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, opening a yeshiva in his house. After the death of his father in 1281, he settled in Worms. In 1286, King Rudolf I instituted a new persecution of the Jews, declaring them servi camerae ("serfs of the treasury"), which had the effect of negating their political freedoms. Along with many others, Meir left Germany with family and followers, but was captured in the mountains of Lombardy having been recognized by a baptized Jew named Kneppe, and imprisoned in a fortress near Ensisheim in Alsace. Tradition has it that a large ransom of 23,000 marks silver was raised for him (by the Rosh), but Rabbi Meir refused it, for fear of encouraging the imprisonment of other rabbis. He ruled on his own abduction in light of Talmudic law. He died in prison after seven years. Fourteen years after his death a ransom was paid for his body by Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen, who was subsequently laid to rest beside the Maharam in the Jewish cemetery of Worms.
According to Rabbi Chaim Joseph David Azulai's Shem HaGedolim, a disciple of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, whose name was Rabbi Meir HaCohen, wrote the famous commentary on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, entitled Hagahot Maimoniyot.
Works
Rabbi Meir wrote no single major work, but many notes, commentaries, expositions, and poems—as well as 1,500 responsa. His disciple the Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Jehiel) codified much of his teaching.