אליהו מנחם מלונדריש

Rav Eliyahu Menachem of Londrish (c. 4980/1220 – spring 5044/1284), known in English sources as Elias Menahem of London, was a rishon and posek, a man of business, and a leading figure in the Jewry of medieval England. He was born to one of the most distinguished families of English Jewry, many of whose members held key communal positions in the generation after him, up to the expulsion of 1290; unlike most Jewish families in England, whose origins lay in France, his family came from the Rhineland, tracing itself to Rav Shimon HaGadol of Magentza. His father was Rav Moshe of Londrish, and his brother was Rav Berechiah of Nicole. He was named, it appears, for his uncle Rav Eliyahu of York, killed in the riots there on Shabbat HaGadol of 4950/1190. His full name was Eliyahu Menachem, but in all his commercial affairs he used only Elias.

In his youth he was sent to France, apparently to Sens, to learn in the batei midrash of the Baalei HaTosafot. In 5011/1251 he wrote his commentary on the Mishnah, and from then he lived in London. For some thirty years he was occupied in trade and finance — lending to churchmen, to nobles and to ordinary citizens, investing in property, and doing business with the king and queen — and a wide record of those dealings has survived. In the Second Barons’ War he and his family lost much property, chiefly through the loss of mortgage bonds; they came to no bodily harm and appear to have escaped to Normandy for the duration, returning to England once the fighting ended. When restrictions were laid on the Jews of England in the 1270s, he and his brothers received exemption from part of them. Alongside his business he also served as a physician.

Among the Jews of England he was held to be great in Torah and a decider of halacha, cited in the sefarim as HaRav meLondrish and quoted by leading rabbanim of his time, among them Rav Mordechai ben Hillel in his Mordechai. He sat as dayan and av beit din of the London community, its sessions held in his own house, and his rulings were backed by the civil authorities. He wrote commentaries on the Mishnayot and on the Talmud together with piskei halacha, and a few of his rulings are kept in practice to this day; he had a hand in matters of Kabbalah as well. The Tosafot Yom Tov came upon his commentary to Seder Zeraim written on parchment — a short comment on every mishnah, drawn in brief from the Rash, with chiddushim after each masechta, each one signed “Eliyahu.” His nephew Hagin Deulacres was appointed presbyter of the Jews of England three years before his passing, the last to hold that office before the expulsion.