Biography
Rabbi Shemaiah of Soissons was a Rishon who learned under Rashi and was active in Soissons. As one of the early French masters who studied at Rashi’s side, his teachings entered the stream of halachic discussion that later authorities drew upon.
His name appears in connection with the laws of kiddush, in the discussion of which wine is fit for sanctification — the requirement that the wine be suitable for offering on the altar, excluding wine that has a foul smell or has been left uncovered, even where its taste and aroma remain those of proper wine over which one would recite the blessing borei pri hagafen. This places him among the voices brought in the practical clarification of the requirements of kiddush over wine.
Where traditions differ. The Bava Metzia passage cites "Rabbi Shemaiah bar Zeira," an amora, who is a different figure from Shemaiah of Soissons the Rishon.
רבי שמעיה היה מחכמי צרפת במאה ה-11 ובתחילת המאה ה-12,
Shemaiah of Soissons was a French Jewish scholar of the 12th century. He is often erroneously identified with Shemaiah of Troyes.
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