תּוֹלְדוֹת
Yehuda HaKohen ben Meir, Rabbeinu Yehudah HaKohen HaZaken ben Rabbi Meir HaKohen (יהודה הכהן בן מאיר), also known as Rabbeinu Yehudah Leontin, Rivam Katz and Rabbeinu Leondon HaKohen, was a rishon of Ashkenaz, a rav and posek in Mainz at the end of the tenth century and the start of the eleventh, in the days of Rav Sherira Gaon. He was called “the great” and “the gaon”, and he also went by the names Léon, Léontin and Sire Léon.
He was active in Mainz after the time of Rabbi Moshe ben Kalonymus. His son was named Meir, and his grandson, Rabbi Yehudah ben Meir of Mainz, bore his exact name, so that in the teshuvot it is sometimes hard to tell which of the two is meant. The grandson wrote Sefer HaDinim, which describes journeys that he and other Jews made in Eastern Europe.
He was the main teacher of Rabbeinu Gershom Meor HaGolah, who held him in great honor and called him “mori hamuvhak” (my principal teacher). He also had a strong influence on Rashi, and some hold that Rashi drew on his knowledge in writing his peirush. The Maharam of Rothenburg, in his teshuvot, preferred the view of Rabbeinu Yehudah HaKohen over that of the Geonim.
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במקום שהמסורות חלוקות. Some say he came to Mainz from Provence, others from Italy. Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol ben Yitzchak learned under a Rabbi Yehudah ben Meir, but some hold that this was the grandson and not this Rabbeinu Yehudah.
רבנו יהודה כהן ה"זקן" בן רבי מאיר הכהן היה רב ופוסק שפעל במגנצא בסוף המאה העשירית לספירה (ד'תש"נ), בימי רב שרירא גאון.
Yehuda ben Meir, also known as Yehudah Leontin, was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar of the late tenth and early eleventh century CE.