יצחק בן אליעזר הלוי

Rabbi Yitzchak ben Eliezer HaLevi, Isaac ben Eliezer Halevi, יצחק בן אליעזר הלוי, also called Rabbi Yitzchak Segan Leviyah, was a rishon of the eleventh century, one of the rabbis of Worms and one of the three principal teachers of Rashi. He was born in Lorraine, learned in his youth under Rabbeinu Gershom, and later moved to Worms, where he served as rav of the city. Rashi, to whom he was most likely related, mentions him in his peirush on the Talmud and twice in his peirush on Tanach.

He was a paytan as well, the author of four wedding piyyutim: a Yotzer, an Ofan, a Zulat and a Reshut. Rabbi Asher, the author of the piyyut “Asher Heini,” was his relative. Rabbi Zalman, a talmid of the Maharil, writes that a granddaughter of Rabbi Yitzchak HaLevi married Rabbi Yitzchak, the son of Rabbi Asher. Of this Rabbi Asher it is told that he composed “Asher Heini,” “Asher Biglal Avot” and “Atnayeh Shivchei,” that he was the first Jew to settle in Worms, coming there from Vitry, that he was a Levi, and that he held a written lineage reaching back to the Nesi’im. If Rabbi Yitzchak did belong to such an old family of talmidei chachamim and founders of communities, that helps explain his senior standing in Worms, since among the early sages of Ashkenaz communal leadership rested with a few families of pedigree.

His sons Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Asher and Rabbi Shmuel were among the sages of Worms in the last quarter of the eleventh century, and they passed on many of their father’s rulings and practices. Two of the sages who wrote Sefer Maaseh HaMachiri learned under Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Shmuel and called them “Rabboteinu HaLeviim,” and it is through that sefer that the Torah of the sons and their testimony about their father’s conduct has come down. Rabbi Eliezer, the eldest, most likely taught in the yeshiva of Worms alongside Rabbi Shlomo ben Shimshon and Rabbi Kalonymus of Rome. Rabbi Yitzchak’s wife, Chana, perished in the gezerot of 4856 (1096).

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