מנחם בן שלמה

Menahem ben Solomon, Rabbi Menachem ben Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak (מנחם בן שלמה), was a rishon of the twelfth century, a parshan of Tanach, a grammarian and rosh yeshiva in Rome. He was born in Rome around 1100 to Rabbi Shlomo ben Rabbi Yitzchak, and learned Torah from his father and from other chachamim whose names are not known, whom he cites often in his sefarim as “rabbotai” and “morai.” In time he became rosh yeshiva in his city. In twenty-five places his sefarim give the Italian word for a term, which shows that he lived in Italy. The year of his passing is not known.

In 1139 (4899) he composed Midrash Sechel Tov, a peirush on the five chumashim in the way of drash and dikduk, with halachic rulings woven in. Its name comes from the pasuk in Mishlei, “sechel tov yiten chen.” He gathers the substance of the older midrashim in clear Hebrew that keeps out foreign words, following the method of the Lekach Tov of Rabbi Toviah ben Eliezer, which he quotes often, sometimes by name and sometimes without. Besides the Targumim and the earlier midrashim, he draws on the mystical writings of the Geonim and on halachic authorities, especially the Rif and Rabbeinu Chananel. He explains pesukim and single words according to their plain sense, while stating outright that the midrashic reading is the deeper one. Later authors cite the sefer both for its explanations and for its halachic rulings. It was still complete in the Middle Ages, but today only the portion from Bereishit 15:1 to Shemot 11:2 survives, in two manuscripts in the Bodleian Library; it was printed in Berlin in 1900. His second work, Even Bochan, deals with dikduk and language; in its introduction he mentions his three sons, Shaltiel, Yedidyah and Yitzchak.

Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra, who visited Rome in 1145, became his friend and wrote several poems in his honor. Rabbi Binyamin of Tudela, visiting Rome in the 1170s, names “Rabbi Menachem, rosh hayeshiva” among the heads of the Rome community whom he met. Rabbi Menachem sent halachic questions to Rabbi Shlomo ben Rabbi Avraham ben Rabbi Yechiel, the nephew of Rabbi Natan ben Yechiel, author of the Aruch.

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