מאיר הכהן מרוטנבורג

Rav Meir bar Yekutiel HaKohen of Rothenburg (c. 5020/1260–12 Av 5058/1298) was among the great talmidim of the Maharam of Rothenburg and the author of the Hagahot Maimoniyot, printed on the page of the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah. He lived in Rothenburg on the Tauber in Germany and was the brother-in-law of Rav Mordechai ben Hillel, author of the Mordechai; such was his devotion to his rebbe that he remained with the Maharam even during the years of his imprisonment.

The Hagahot Maimoniyot, written together with his talmid-chaver Rav Shimshon ben Tzadok, joins the opinions of the chachamim of Ashkenaz and the baalei Tosafot of France to the halachot of the Mishneh Torah, and it became one of the nosei keilim of the Rambam, printed at the foot of the page in most editions of the sefer. Within the work the Maharam is sometimes mentioned with the blessing “sheyichyeh” and sometimes as one already departed — a sign that it was begun in the Maharam’s lifetime and continued after his petirah in 5053/1293. To the Hagahot he joined the Teshuvot Maimoniyot, a collection of teshuvot of the gedolei Ashkenaz on the subjects of each book, printed at the end of each sefer of the Mishneh Torah; both works appear to have been brought to completion after his death by his chaveirim, the talmidim of the Maharam.

Rav Meir was killed al kiddush Hashem with his entire family and his kehillah in the Rindfleisch massacres, on 12 Av 5058/1298, sources say on the same day as the Mordechai (both were talmidim muvhakim of the Maharam); an unnamed paytan of his generation lamented “the Kohen HaMeir… who expounded and fulfilled, who toiled and made clear.” The Hagahot Maimoniyot was first printed in Constantinople in 5269/1509, and fifteen years later in Venice in a markedly different text, the one found in our editions to this day; the Constantinople text is printed at the end of the Frankel edition of the Rambam.