שמחה משפיירא

Rabbeinu Simcha ben Shmuel of Speyer (late twelfth–early thirteenth century) was among the greatest chachamim of Ashkenaz in the age of the baalei Tosafot — the head of the circle of Speyer, whose word carried through all the kehillot of the Rhine. He was the talmid muvhak of Rabbeinu Yehuda ben Kalonymus of Speyer, and learned as well under Rabbeinu Eliezer of Metz, the talmid of Rabbeinu Tam; he stood as colleague to the Raavyah and to Rabbeinu Yehuda HeChassid, and his name stands among the leading signatories of the Takkanot Shum, the great ordinances of the Rhine kehillot affirmed at the Mainz assembly of 4980/1220.

His beit medrash raised giants: the Or Zarua, Rabbeinu Yitzchak of Vienna, was among his first talmidim, and Rabbeinu Yeshaya di Trani of Italy learned from him as well; among his last talmidim was Rabbeinu Avigdor HaKohen, who carried his Torah to Vienna — the Or Zarua writes that Rabbeinu Avigdor poured water on his hands as Elisha on the hands of Eliyahu.

His own sefarim — a halachic work called Seder Olam, Tosafot on several masechtot, peirushim on the Sifra and masechet Horayot, and a Tikkun Shetarot on documents — were lost, but his Torah lives dispersed through the sefarim of the generations that leaned on him: the Raavyah, the Or Zarua, the Shibolei HaLeket, the Mordechai, the Hagahot Maimoniyot, and the responsa of the Maharam of Rothenburg all bring his rulings. In his last years his eyes failed him; his authority never did.