יהודה בן הרא"ש

Rav Yehuda ben HaRosh (9 Av 5050/1290–17 Tammuz 5109/1349) was a posek of the Rishonim, the son and successor of the Rosh, Rabbeinu Asher ben Yechiel, and the author of the teshuvot Zichron Yehudah. He was born in Cologne in Ashkenaz; at thirteen he left with his family for Spain amid the persecutions that followed the imprisonment of the Maharam of Rothenburg, his father’s rebbe, and the Rosh sent him ahead to examine Toledo as a place of settlement — he reached the city on Rosh Chodesh Iyar 5065/1305. In his tzavaah he writes with striking honesty of those first years: he could gain little from the chachamim of Spain, for he understood neither their script nor their language, and his eyes were so weak that he could not even occupy himself with writing. He married within the family, a daughter of one of his brothers.

The Rosh settled in Toledo as av beit din and rosh yeshiva, and in his father’s old age Rav Yehuda served six years at his side as his deputy; upon the Rosh’s petirah in 5088/1327 the kehillah of Toledo chose him as his father’s successor. He was confirmed as chief rabbi by the crown of Castile as well, with authority extending even to dinei nefashot. His kehillah held him dear: when, over some disagreement, he thought to move to Seville, they pressed him to remain and doubled his salary. His heart, though, stayed turned toward Ashkenaz, and he counseled his five sons to return to the land of his birth. He upheld his father’s takanah that every member of the family set aside a tithe of his earnings for tzedakah, and at his request his sons signed a like agreement over their own earnings in 5106/1346.

His teshuvot were gathered in the Zichron Yehudah, cited often by the acharonim — Rav Yosef Karo among them in the Beit Yosef; a fragment of his perush on masechet Shabbat was printed with them, while his sefer Chukat HaTorah has not reached us. Among his talmidim were Rav Menachem ben Zerach, author of the Tzeidah LaDerech, and Rav Machir, author of the sefer Avkat Rochel. He was niftar on 17 Tammuz 5109/1349 in the great plague, together with several of his family, and was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Toledo; his tzavaah, the Iggeret Tochachah, and the inscription on his matzeivah both preserve details of his life, so that his story can be told more fully than that of most chachamim of his time.