ר' יהודה בן יקר

Rabbi Yehudah bar Yakar was a rishon, born in Provence, who acted in Barcelona at the beginning of the thirteenth century. He wrote his commentary on the tefillot and the berachot after 1193, since he quotes in it the Mishneh Torah of the Rambam, which reached Provence that year. Toward the close of the twelfth century or the start of the thirteenth he traveled north and became a talmid of the Ritzva of Dampierre, and in 1215 he served as a dayan in Barcelona.

His principal talmid was the Ramban, who received from him the Torah of the Baalei HaTosafot and brings him regularly in his chiddushim on the Gemara, composed around 1220, usually with a blessing for the living. His talmidim and the batei midrash of Spain bring a great many teachings and explanations in his name, chiefly in matters of Gemara; Professor Shalem Yahalom has shown that wherever the Ramban writes “I heard” or “from my rebbi,” he means bar Yakar. The Rashbash called him a great storehouse for the two Talmudim.

He wrote a commentary on the Talmud Yerushalmi, apparently the first of its kind, which has not reached us; some understood from the Rashbash’s words that he wrote a commentary on the Bavli as well, and that too is lost. What survives is his commentary on the tefillot and the berachot, known as Maayan Ganim, which later rishonim quote often — the Orchot Chaim, the teshuvot of the Rashbash and the Ritva‘s commentary on the Haggadah among them — and from which the Abudraham copied a great deal into his well-known commentary on the siddur. His commentaries on the tefillot of Rosh Hashanah and of Yom Kippur, and on the thirteen middot, have been published separately.