שמואל הסרדי

Rabbi Shmuel ben Yitzchak HaSardi (שמואל הסרדי) was a rishon of Sefarad (Spain) who lived from 1190 to 1256. He is the author of Sefer HaTerumot, on dinei mamonot (monetary law). His family most likely came from the island of Sardinia, which gave him his name; in some sefarim it was miscopied as “HaSefaradi”.

As a young man he learned in Provence under Rabbi Natan ben Meir of Trinquetaille, and then returned to Spain. By 1215 he was living in Barcelona, where he learned Torah free of financial worry, supported by fields and properties that he leased to Jews and non-Jews. A building in the old quarter of Barcelona still carries the inscription “Hekdesh Rabbi Shmuel HaSardi” (property dedicated by Rabbi Shmuel HaSardi). Rabbi Shlomo ben Avraham of Montpellier, who led the campaign against the Rambam’s writings, wrote him a letter praising his learning and recalling their friendship in their youth.

He was a talmid-chaver (a younger colleague who also learned from him) of the Ramban. While writing his sefer he asked the Ramban, in writing and in person, about matters he found difficult. The Ramban’s written answers are printed in Sefer HaTerumot, which he completed in the 1220s, when the Ramban was a little over thirty. These answers to Rabbi Shmuel are the main group of the Ramban’s teshuvot that have come down to us; they set out to explain the intent of the Gemara rather than to rule on practical cases, and they show the Ramban as a commentator.

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