The Tosafot,Tosafos or Tosfot are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes.
Haim Yosef David Azulai ben Yitzhak Zerachia, commonly known as the Hida, was a Jerusalem born rabbinical scholar, a noted bibliophile, and a pioneer in the publication of Jewish religious writings.
Tobiah ben Eliezer was a Talmudist and poet of the 11th century, author of Lekach Tov or Pesikta Zutarta, a midrashic commentary on the Pentateuch and the Five Megillot.
Chaim ibn Attar or Ḥayyim ben Moshe ibn Attar also known as the Or ha-Ḥayyim after his popular commentary on the Torah, was a Talmudist and Kabbalist. He is arguably considered to be one of the most prominent Rabbis of Morocco, and is highly regarded in Hassidic Judaism.
Rabbi Samuel ben Moses de Medina, was a Talmudist and author from Thessaloniki. He was principal of the Talmudic college of that city, which produced a great number of prominent scholars during the 16th and 17th centuries. His teachers were the noted Talmudists Joseph Taitazak and Levi Ibn Chaviv, and among his schoolmates were Isaac Adarbi, Joseph ibn Leb, and Moses Almosnino. While on a mission to Constantinople he met the noted grammarian Menahem Lonzano, who studied under him for some time and who therefore speaks of him as his teacher.
Rabbeinu Asher ben Meshullam was a Jewish theologian and Talmudic scholar who lived at Lunel in the second half of the 12th century CE. A renowned Talmudist, he was a son of the well-known R' Meshullam ben Jacob (Rabbeinu Meshullam ha-Gadol), and a pupil of R' Joseph ibn Plat and the Raavad.
Aaron ben Isaac Lapapa was an Oriental rabbi and Talmudist. He was at first rabbi at Manissa, Turkey, and at an advanced age was called to Smyrna as judge in civil affairs. In 1665, when the Sabbatai Zevi movement was at its height there, he was one of the few rabbis who had the courage to oppose the false prophet and excommunicate him. Sabbatai Zevi and his adherents retorted by deposing him and forcing him to leave the city, and his office was given to his colleague, Ḥayyim Benveniste, at that time one of Sabbatai's followers. After Sabbatai's conversion to Islam, Lapapa seems to have been reinstated.
Isaac ben Samuel the Elder, also known as the Ri ha-Zaken, was a French tosafist and Biblical commentator. He flourished at Ramerupt and Dampierre, France in the twelfth century. He is the father of Elhanan ben Isaac of Dampierre.
Isaiah di Trani ben Mali (the Elder) (c. 1180 – c. 1250) (Hebrew: ישעיה בן מאלי הזקן דטראני), better known as the RID, was a prominent Italian Talmudist.
Samuel ben Isaac Ha-Sardi was a Spanish rabbi who flourished in the first half of the 13th century. In his youth he attended the school of Rabbi Nathan ben Meir of Trinquetaille, Provence, and later he returned to Spain, his native country. David Conforte derives the name "Sardi" from the city of Sardinia. Zacuto calls Samuel "Ha-Sefaradi"; so does Heilprin in Seder ha-Dorot, i.216b, 292a in the Warsaw edition of 1883, but in iii.108b of the Warsaw edition of 1882 he designates him "Ha-Sardi."
Rabbi Jonah ben Abraham Gerondi, also known as Jonah of Girona and Rabbeinu Yonah, was a Catalan rabbi and moralist, cousin of Nahmanides. He is most famous for his ethical work The Gates of Repentance.
Joseph ibn Habiba, also known as Joseph Havivah and Nimmukei Yosef, after the title of his book, was a Spanish Talmudist who flourished in the 14th and 15th centuries. He lived in Barcelona.
Moses ben Isaac ha-Levi Minz was a German rabbi, a disciple of R. Yaakov Weil and contemporary of Israel Isserlein, whom he frequently consulted. He was successively rabbi at Mainz, Landau, Bamberg, and Posen. He is one of the first known Jewish Scholars to have officiated as Rav of a city in Poland.
Aaron ben Moses Alfandari was a Talmudic writer born in Smyrna. He emigrated to the Land of Israel in his old age, where he met Chaim Yosef David Azulai, known as the CHIDA. In his book Shem HaGedolim, the CHIDA states he "got to meet the Rabbi in his old age in the holy city of Hebron, enjoying the radiance of his light..." Rabbi Alfandari was the first to sign the CHIDA's documents affirming him as an emissary to represent the Jewish community in foreign lands. The CHIDA lists him as one of the sages buried in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron. Today, his name on the list is displayed on a plaque at the cemetery, although his exact grave site location was lost during the Jordanian period.
Simeon ben Helbo Kara was a French rabbi who lived in Mans in the 11th century; brother of Menahem ben Helbo and father of Joseph Ḳara. Isaac de Lattes, in his Ḳiryat Sefer, counts Ḳara among the prominent French rabbis, although no work of his has survived. J.L. Rapoport identified him with the compiler of the Yalḳuṭ Shim'oni, on account of the similarity of some Midrashic quotations in this work with citations in Rashi's Bible commentary. Abraham Epstein has, however, shown that in the manuscripts the name "Ḳara" does not occur, and in place of "Simeon" the reading "Simson" at times is found.
Kol Bo is a collection of Jewish ritual and civil laws. Its author has not yet been ascertained. The work in content resembles other codes, as, for instance, the Orḥot Ḥayyim, though in its form it is very different.
A meshulach, also known as a shaliach or SHaDaR, was an emissary sent to the Diaspora to raise funds (ḥalukka) for the Jewish communities of the Land of Israel. In recent times, the term has come to mean any charity collector for a Jewish organization.
Rabbi Samuel ben Isaac de Uçeda was a Jewish commentator and preacher. Born at Safed in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, his name, Uçeda, originally was derived from the town Uceda in the archbishopric of Toledo. He was a pupil of Isaac Luria and Hayyim Vital, with whom he studied kabbalah, and became rabbi and preacher in Safed and, later, in Constantinople.
Meir ben Samuel, also known by the Hebrew acronym RaM for Rabbi Meir, was a French rabbi and tosafist, who was born in about 1060 in Ramerupt, and died after 1135. His father was an eminent scholar. Meir received his education in the Talmudical schools of Lorraine, his principal teachers being Isaac ben Asher ha-Levi and Eleazar ben Isaac of Mainz, with whom he later carried on a correspondence.
Eliezer of Touques was a French tosafist, who lived at Touques in the second half of the thirteenth century. He abridged the tosafot of Samson of Sens, Samuel of Évreux, and many others, and added thereto marginal notes of his own, entitled "Gilyon Tosafot," or "Tosafot Gillayon". This abridgment, together with the notes, after undergoing many alterations and receiving several additions from later authorities, was called Tosafot Ṭuk; it forms the foundation of the Tosafot now printed with the Talmud.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Richard Gottheil and M. Seligsohn (1901–1906). "Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia . New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Its bibliography: