Simha of Speyer
Encyclopedia
Simha ben Samuel of Speyer
Speyer
Speyer is a city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities...

(13th century) was a German rabbi and tosafist. Neither the year of his birth nor that of his death is known. He was one of the leading signatories of the Takkanot Shum
Takkanot Shum
The ' , or Enactments of SHU"M were a set of decrees formulated and agreed upon over a period of decades by the leaders of three of the central cities of Medieval Rhineland Jewry: Speyer, Worms, and Mainz. The initials of the Hebrew names for these cities, , , and form the initials...

 (comp. Moses Minz, Responsa, No. 202). He was a nephew of the director ("parnas") Kalonymus, a pupil of R. Eliezer of Metz, and a colleague of Eliezer ben Joel ha-Levi.

Simḥah was the author of the following works: (1) commentary on the treatise Horayot
Horayot
Horayot is the final tractate of Seder Nezikin in the Talmud. It discusses laws pertaining to errors in judgment by a Jewish court....

, quoted in Tos. Hor. 4b, s.v. Ḳeri; (2) tosafot
Tosafot
The Tosafot or Tosafos are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes...

 and novellæ on the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

; (3) Seder Olam, a work divided into paragraphs and containing decisions, comments on Talmudic passages, and regulations for religious practise; quoted in Haggahot Maimoniyyot, on Ishut, vi. 14 and Tefillah, ix. (all the responsa and decisions which the earlier authors quote in the name of R. Simḥah were probably taken from this work); (4) Tiḳḳun Sheṭarot, on agreements and documents; quoted in Haggahot Maimoniyyot, on Gerushin, iv. 12; (5) sections ("she'arim") on the regulations referring to the benedictions; quoted in the same work, on Berakot
Berakhot (Talmud)
Berachot is the first tractate of Seder Zeraim, a collection of the Mishnah that primarily deals with laws relating to plants and farming...

, viii. Aside from these works decisions and responsa by Simḥah are mentioned in the responsa collection of R. Meir of Rothenburg
Meir of Rothenburg
Meir of Rothenburg was a German Rabbi and poet, a major author of the tosafot on Rashi's commentary on the Talmud...

 (Nos. 573, 927, 931, 932) and in the works of several older authors.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

  • Leopold Zunz
    Leopold Zunz
    Leopold Zunz was a German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of what has been termed "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies" , the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual...

    , Literaturgesch. pp. 309–311;
  • Heimann Joseph Michael
    Heimann Joseph Michael
    Heimann Joseph Michael was a Hebrew bibliographer born at Hamburg. He showed great acuteness of mind in early childhood, had a phenomenal memory, and was an indefatigable student. He studied Talmudics and received also private instruction in all the branches of a regular school education...

    , Or ha-Ḥayyim, Nos. 12, 15
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