9 Cheshvan · Yahrzeit
Yahrzeit/Hillula of Rabbeinu Rosh
Rabbeinu Rosh - Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel (5010-5088 /c.1250-1327/)
Yahrzeit - 9 Cheshvan
Resting place - Toledo, Spain
He was the universally recognized leader of the sages of the Diaspora and one of the greatest halachic authorities of all time.
His great-grandfather was the Raavan, author of the book "Even HaEzer," one of the most authoritative halachic decisors of the Jewish communities of Germany.
He was born in Germany. He studied under his father, R. Yechiel ben Uri (the Rosh's mother came from a wealthy family in Cologne, which allowed R. Yechiel to devote all his time and energy to Torah study).
After 5041 /1281/ the Rosh became the closest disciple of the spiritual leader of German Jewry, the Maharam of Rothenburg. He later served as a dayan (judge) on the court headed by the Maharam.
In those years the German emperor Rudolf of Habsburg waged constant wars that demanded a steady flow of money into the treasury. He imposed crushing taxes and levies on the Jewish communities — a mass flight of Jews from the country began.
In 5046 /1286/ the Maharam, the Rosh's teacher, also tried to leave Germany, but was captured and, by order of the emperor, imprisoned in a fortress — a ransom of a million marks was demanded for his release.
The Rosh set about collecting the necessary sum, but the Maharam forbade himself to be ransomed, so as not to encourage the authorities to commit similar crimes in the future.
When the Maharam died in the fortress in 5053 /1293/,
and five years later, during a pogrom, his two closest disciples, R. Mordechai ben Hillel and R. Meir HaKohen, perished, the Rosh remained the most authoritative halachic decisor in Germany and soon became the universally recognized leader of the generation.
But he too decided to leave the country and was only waiting for a favorable moment. Already in 5043 /1283/, the Rosh had sent one of his sons, thirteen-year-old Yehuda, to Spain to study Torah in the Barcelona yeshiva of the Rashba, the spiritual leader of the Jews of the Diaspora — now the whole family was preparing to follow Yehuda.
In 5063 /1303/ the Rosh's family set out on a dangerous journey (by that time the Rosh had eight sons and two daughters, and the older sons already had families of their own). They traveled in small groups so as not to attract the attention of the authorities; the fugitives reunited in Provence. After a brief respite in Montpellier, they crossed into Spain and in the autumn of 5064 /1304/ reached Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia.
At first the Rosh's family settled in the house of the Rashba, and the two leaders of the generation immediately immersed themselves in joint study, helping each other work through the most difficult questions.
During this period the Rosh became involved in a heated controversy over whether it was permissible to study non-Jewish sciences and philosophy.
Already in Provence the Rosh had been struck by how far many Jews had drifted from Jewish tradition. Enamored of Greek and Arab philosophy, they had begun to interpret the words of the Torah arbitrarily, treating them merely as abstract philosophical allegories. In daily life, many of them had stopped observing the commandments.
And in Spain the Rosh saw the same picture. The situation was entirely unexpected for him — for in the Germany he had left, the Torah had held undisputed sway over the minds of the Jews.
And when one of the sages of Provence, R. Abba Mari of Montpellier, called on the leaders of the generation to block the development of this dangerous trend, the Rosh readily responded to the call. He decided to form an authoritative group of Torah scholars who could stand against the devotees of philosophy. But it very quickly became clear that many Torah scholars avoided stating their opinion openly — for the disease had already gone too far, and almost every one of them had relatives and friends among the "enlightened" circles. Even the Rashba, the recognized leader of the generation, avoided making any decision on the matter, not wishing, in his words, "to interfere in what was not his business."
The Rosh, however, understood that delaying the decision only increased the danger. He continued to coordinate his actions with R. Abba Mari: after their meeting in Montpellier, they exchanged letters extensively throughout the Rosh's stay in Barcelona (5064–5065 /1304–1305/) — these letters were published in the book Minchat Kanaot (Offering of Zeal), compiled by R. Abba Mari.
In 5065 /1305/ — largely thanks to the Rosh's influence — the Rashba declared, in the main synagogue of Barcelona, a cherem forbidding young men under the age of twenty-five to study philosophy and other "Greek" sciences, with the exception of medicine and astronomy. In deference to the Rashba's authority, most of the communities of Spain and Provence submitted to his ban.
The Rosh himself wrote that since the study of ancient philosophy led people to unbelief, "the ban should have been extended to those over twenty-five as well," but given the actual balance of forces in the communities of Spain and Provence, he was forced to accept a compromise (Teshuvot HaRosh 55:9; Minchat Kanaot 99).
At the same time, he was keenly interested in the natural sciences based on the study of reality, especially astronomy and astrology — in 5070 /1310/ he even asked the famous astronomer of Toledo, R. Yitzchak ben Yosef Israeli, to write a treatise on questions that interested him.
With the Rosh's arrival, Spain once again — as in the days of the "Golden Age" — became the main center of Torah study, for now both leaders of the generation, the Rashba and the Rosh, were in the country. In 5066 /1306/, once the Rosh had settled in Spain, he was invited to serve as rabbi in Toledo, the capital of the Kingdom of Castile. There he established a yeshiva that attracted hundreds of students from all corners of Europe: from Spain itself, from Provence, and from Germany. There was even a student from far-off Russia — a certain R. Asher ben Sinai.
One of the bitter fruits of Greek philosophy's hold over the minds of the people was that very few Spanish Jews could make their way through the Talmud itself — only the abbreviated and adapted digest of the Rif was studied. And even judges generally issued their rulings based on the ready-made codes of the Rif or the Rambam.
To fundamentally change this situation, the Rosh made the Babylonian Talmud the main subject of study in his yeshiva (as was customary in the yeshivot of France and Germany): the legal sections in particular were studied.
In explaining the material, the Rosh relied, besides his own insights, primarily on the Tosafot of Sens — commentaries on the Talmud composed by R. Shimshon of Sens — as well as on the interpretations of the great sages of Spain, the Rambam and the Ramban.
Many students kept notes of his lessons. Notes covering most of the Talmud have survived — on their basis the famous Tosafot HaRosh (Additions of the Rosh) were compiled, which have been published many times as a separate edition. These notes also formed the basis for the classical version of the Tosafot to the tractates Yevamot, Ketubot, Horayot, and to the last two chapters of tractate Sotah.
Another result of the Rosh's teaching activity in the yeshiva was his celebrated code, which became known as Piskei HaRosh (The Legal Rulings of the Rosh). He had conceived this work, on the advice of his teacher the Maharam, already back in Germany, but carried it out only in Toledo. He wrote the code over the course of almost twenty years, based on his yeshiva lessons and subsequent discussions with his students. The Rosh completed the work in 5087 /1327/, a year before his death.
Like the Rif, he arranged the laws in the thematic order of the Talmud and included only those that remain relevant after the destruction of the Temple, in exile. Unlike the Rif, the Rosh drew on both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud in establishing the law.
In this code the Rosh summed up more than two centuries of the legal work of the authors of the Tosafot. He succeeded in organically uniting the Ashkenazic and Sephardic interpretations of many laws — a task he alone was suited for, since he was an outstanding expert in both versions of the tradition.
To the halachic rulings found in the codes of the Rif and the Rambam, he added the opinions of Rashi, of numerous Tosafists of France and Germany, as well as his own legal rulings and conclusions.
Both in his commentaries on the Talmud and in his psakim (legal rulings), the Rosh was marked by exceptional independence of judgment and intellectual self-reliance. He wrote on this subject: "Any legal rulings, other than those found in the Talmud itself, may be corrected and disputed — even the opinions of the Babylonian Geonim" (Piskei HaRosh, Sanhedrin 4:6). And indeed, the Rosh more than once issued rulings that contradicted the psakim of R. Hai Gaon and R. Achai of Shabcha, author of the code Sheiltot.
On a number of occasions he refuted the opinions of the greatest of his predecessors — the Rif, Rashi, Rabbeinu Tam, the Rambam, and even his own teacher, the Maharam of Rothenburg. Moreover, he just as resolutely disputed the views of his older contemporary the Rashba, whose psakim carried unquestioned authority throughout Spain.
And when the Rosh was reproached for such extreme independence, he replied by citing precedents: "Who among the sages is greater than Rashi, may the memory of the righteous be a blessing, yet his direct descendants — Rabbeinu Tam and the Ri HaZaken — disagree with him and refute his words in numerous instances" (Teshuvot HaRosh 55:9) — and indeed, the Tosafot are built to a great extent on just such debate.
The legal rulings found in his code are, as a rule, supported by a coherent system of proofs and detailed references to sources. In this he saw an important advantage of his code over that of the Rambam, on which the judges in Spain relied at that time.
In one of his responsa the Rosh wrote: "Those who issue halachic rulings based on the book of the Rambam without knowing exactly where in the Talmud he derives his words are mistaken — such judges mistakenly permit what is forbidden and forbid what is permitted... For the Rambam wrote his book as though he were a prophet — without citing proofs; because of this, an unsophisticated reader may think he has understood what is written, but in fact his understanding is incorrect, because all the laws are torn from their Talmudic context" (Teshuvot HaRosh 31:9).
In later generations, the Rosh's code, alongside the books of the Rif and the Rambam, became one of the fundamental sources of law. The Rosh's son, R. Yaakov, in his code Arba'ah Turim (Four Rows), cites hundreds of his father's psakim, generally establishing the law in accordance with his opinion. This code by the Rosh's son, in turn, served as the model for R. Yosef Karo, the compiler of the Shulchan Aruch, who says so directly in the introduction to his book. There he also adds: "I decided to rely on the three pillars of the law upon which the entire House of Israel stands: the Rif, the Rambam, and the Rosh — ...and where two of them agree with each other, the law is established according to their opinion."
The Rosh's legal creativity is most fully expressed in his responsa — answers to halachic questions sent to him from many communities of the Diaspora: from Provence, from Morocco, and, of course, from every corner of Spain. More than a thousand responsa have survived — they were collected into the book Teshuvot HaRosh (Responsa of the Rosh), which was first published in Kushta (Constantinople) in 5277 /1517/.
The Spanish authorities had long granted Jewish courts the right to sentence defendants not only to corporal punishment but also to death. And although it is forbidden to hand down a death sentence in the absence of the Supreme Court — the Sanhedrin — the Rosh, upon assuming leadership of the Jewish community of Spain, "preserved this ancient privilege for the courts, but himself never once sentenced a guilty party to death" (Teshuvot HaRosh 17:8). In a later period he approved several such sentences (ibid. 17:1, 21:9).
The Rosh also composed a commentary on the Torah — in expanded editions of the Chumash, the Mikraot Gedolot, his commentary is printed in the appendix, together with the interpretations of other Tosafists.
In the last year of his life the Rosh could no longer write himself — he only dictated his responsa and signed them.
In the late summer of 5087 /1327/, the Rosh's wife, who had accompanied him through life for more than sixty years, passed away. Ten weeks later, on the ninth day of the month of Marcheshvan 5088 /1327/, he himself was called up to the heavenly yeshiva.
He is buried in Toledo.
May the merit of this tzadik protect our people!
(Toldot Ru, Alexander Katz)