שמואל שלטשטט

Rabbi Shmuel ben Aharon Schlettstadt (שמואל בן אהרן שלטשטט) was a rishon of Ashkenaz in the fourteenth century. He was born in Schlettstadt in Alsace and lived in Strasbourg in the second half of the century, where he was a rosh yeshiva. He is the author of Kitzur HaMordechai, also called Mordechai HaKatan.

The story of his life is told in Sefer HaMiknah of Rabbi Yosef of Rosheim. Around 1370 two moserim (informers) in the Strasbourg community were accused of carrying reports about the community to the knights of Andlau. Rabbi Shmuel set up a beit din over them, and it sentenced both to death. The sentence was carried out on one of them, Salamin; the other fled, converted to Christianity and told the knights what had been done. The knights came to Strasbourg with an armed mob to take revenge on Rabbi Shmuel, and he found shelter in the castle of Hohlandsberg near Colmar. The leaders of the community did not step in to protect him, and he remained shut up there for six years.

In 1376 he came out of hiding and traveled to Bavel, where he brought a complaint against the Strasbourg leaders before the nasi (head of the Jewish community there). He came back with letters of cherem (excommunication) from the nasi and from the rabbis of Jerusalem, and settled in Regensburg in Germany. The rabbis of Regensburg wrote to the heads of the Strasbourg community, pleading with them to obtain permission for his return and warning that otherwise the cherem would fall on them. The leaders obtained the permission from the authorities, and he was allowed to return to Strasbourg.

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