מהר"ם מרוטנבורג

Rav Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg (c. 4975/1215–19 Iyar 5053/1293), the Maharam, was among the greatest of the early Ashkenazi rishonim and one of the last of the Baalei Tosafot. Born in Worms to Rav Baruch, he learned first from his father, then in Würzburg under Rav Yitzchak of Vienna, the Or Zarua, and traveled to the Tosafist yeshivot of France under Rav Yechiel of Paris and Rav Shmuel of Falaise. In 5002/1242 he stood in Paris as the wagonloads of the Talmud were burned — a sight he mourned in his kinah Sha’ali Serufa BaEish, written on the pattern of Rav Yehuda HaLevi’s Tzion HaLo Tishali and said to this day in the Ashkenaz kinot of Tisha B’Av. Returning to Germany, he opened a yeshiva in Rothenburg and became the highest halachic authority of Ashkenaz.

Among his talmidim were the Rosh, Rav Asher ben Yechiel, who set down much of his teaching; the Mordechai; Rav Meir HaKohen of the Hagahot Maimoniyot; and Rav Shimshon ben Tzadok, who recorded his rabbi’s practices in the Tashbetz Katan. The Maharam wrote to the rabbis of Eretz Yisrael and held it worthy to make aliyah despite the perils of the road. Seeking to settle in the Land with his family, he was recognized in Lombardy by an apostate and handed over; in 5046/1286 Rudolf I imprisoned him in the fortress of Ensisheim in Alsace, demanding an enormous ransom, which the Rosh set about raising.

By the tradition handed down, the Maharam would not allow the community to redeem him for so great a sum, lest it invite the seizing of other rabbis — ruling on his own captivity by the words that captives are not redeemed beyond their worth. He remained in prison seven years and was niftar there; only fourteen years later was his body ransomed by Alexander Wimpfen, who was buried beside him in the cemetery of Worms. In his cell, without his sefarim, he wrote from memory a commentary on Seder Taharot. He left no single large work but some 1,500 responsa, Tosafot on Yoma, and rulings on eruvin, berachot, aveilut, and shechitah. The Maharam is often quoted in the Tur and Shulchan Aruch in the opinions brought down by his principal talmidim, the Rosh and Mordechai.

The tragedy of the Maharam’s imprisonment was an omen for the whole Jewish community in Germany. From his urgings that his talmidim move to avoid persecution, the Rosh moved to Spain, and the Mordechai and Hagahot Maimoniyot stayed – and thereafter perished on the same day in a pogrom in their town.