מהרי"ל

Rav Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin (c. 5123/1363–22 Elul 5187/1427), the Maharil — also called Mahari Segal — was the rav and rosh yeshiva of Mainz and is counted as the father of the minhagim of Ashkenaz. He was the son and pupil of Rav Moshe Levi Moelin, rav of Mainz, and a close talmid of Rav Shalom of Neustadt, learning for a time alongside Rav Yitzchak Isaac of Tyrnau. In 5147/1387 he took his father’s place as rav of Mainz and founded a yeshiva that drew many talmidim, among them Rav Yaakov Weil.

He lived in a hard generation for the Jews of the Rhine and Bavaria — he lived through the destruction of the Jews of Vienna and the upheavals of the Hussite wars — and much of his rabbanut went to rebuilding shattered kehillot, work reflected in the many responsa he sent across central Europe on questions of orphans, widows, and agunot. He served also as a chazzan, holding that the traditional melodies of the tefillah should not be altered, and a number of niggunim are ascribed to him.

His name lives in Minhagei Maharil, also called Sefer Maharil — a detailed account of the practices of home and beit knesset that became an authoritative record of the minhagim of German Jewry. It was compiled by his talmid Rav Eliezer ben Yaakov, Zalman of St. Goar, and first printed in Sabbioneta in 5316/1556. The sefer shaped the standing of minhag among the communities of central Europe, and the Rema drew on it heavily in his glosses to the Shulchan Aruch. The Maharil was niftar on 22 Elul 5187 and buried in the old cemetery of Worms.