Samuel ben Meir

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Samuel ben Meir , called Raschbam (* around 1085 in Ramerupt , † around 1174), was a Jewish commentator on the Tanach and Talmud in the 12th century. He is a grandson of Rashi and brother of Rabbenu Tam .

Life

His life data are not clearly secured. He was born between 1080 and 1085 in Ramerupt, a village in northern France, and probably died in the late 1150s. Rashbam's father Meir studied with the famous scholar Rashi and married his daughter Jochebed. Samuel ben Meir also conducted his studies mainly with his grandfather in Troyes . In some cases, Rashi accepted his grandson's opinion and changed his own comment accordingly.

Samuel ben Meir earned his living as a shepherd and winemaker . He was also familiar with worldly matters and may have a knowledge of Latin . Like Rashi, he gives old French explanations for some expressions . He took part in disputations with Christians. In addition to his commentaries on Tanach and Talmud he also wrote Pijjutim and wrote a grammatical work on the Hebrew language , Sefer Daikut .

He apparently commented on all the books in the Bible; However, only his commentary on the Torah , the five books of Moses, has survived. His comments are deliberately limited to the literal meaning of the text, the pschat (see PaRDeS ).

Samuel ben Meir was also a major Tosafist .

literature