שמשון בן צדוק

Rabbi Shimshon ben Tzadok (niftar 5072/1312) was among the foremost talmidim of the Maharam of Rothenburg, a chacham of the thirteenth century who lived toward the close of the era of the Baalei HaTosafot. His rebbe the Maharam had sought to leave Germany and go up to Eretz Yisrael, and for this he was seized by the empire on a charge of attempted emigration, which was forbidden to Jews — the hope being to draw a heavy ransom from the kehillot for his release. He was held for seven years at Ensisheim, and Rabbi Shimshon attended him there. English sources call him Samson ben Zadok.

Visitors were barred from the Maharam in his imprisonment, but at a certain point Rabbi Shimshon was permitted in, and he came often and stayed at his rebbe’s side. What he saw and heard in those years he wrote down: copies of the Maharam’s teshuvot, halachot he heard from his mouth, and the practice he watched him keep. The collection is the Sefer Tashbetz, the letters standing for Teshuvot Shimshon ben Tzadok, and it is called Tashbetz Katan to keep it apart from the Tashbetz of Rabbi Shimon ben Tzemach Duran. It seems he did not bring the sefer to its final form himself, since he is spoken of within it in the third person. Rabbeinu Peretz ben Eliyahu and his talmidim added glosses to it.

Together with another talmid of the Maharam, Rabbi Meir HaKohen of Rothenburg, Rabbi Shimshon composed the Hagahot Maimuniyot on the Mishneh Torah of the Rambam, which sets alongside the Rambam’s rulings the positions of the chachmei Ashkenaz and the Baalei HaTosafot on the matters under discussion.