person · P0238
Maharam of Rothenburg מהר"ם מרוטנבורג
Last great Tosafist and the halakhic leader of Ashkenaz — arrested while attempting to leave Germany in 1286 and held for ransom, he refused redemption lest kidnapping rabbis become policy, and died in the fortress of Ensisheim. His student the Rosh carried Ashkenazic halakha to Spain. No upstream edge is drawn: his attested teachers (R' Yechiel of Paris, R' Yitzchak Or Zarua) are not yet in the atlas.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- מהר"ם מרוטנבורג
- Also known as
- Meir ben Baruch
- Era
- rishonim
- Transmitted the mesorah to
- The Rosh
- Students
- The Rosh
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 4975–5053 AM
- Academic
- c. 1215–1293 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈78 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Rothenburg, Worms
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| He studied in France under R' Yechiel of Paris — he witnessed the burning of the Talmud's wagonloads there in 1242 and mourned it in the elegy Sha'ali Serufah BaEsh — and in Germany under R' Yitzchak Or Zarua; both teachers await atlas entities, so his reception is recorded as a claim only.
Gap by atlas coverage: the attested line Ri → R' Yehudah Sir Leon → R' Yechiel of Paris → Maharam would close the Ashkenazic chain if those figures are added.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Imprisoned at Ensisheim from 1286 until his death, he refused the enormous ransom raised for him; his responsa, and the compendia of his students (Rosh, Mordechai, Tashbetz), fixed Ashkenazic practice for centuries. | external tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| Meir ben Baruch, born at Worms c. 1215; his father Baruch was himself a scholar of the Rhineland communities. | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ |
|
| His body was withheld after death and only released some fourteen years later, in 1307, when Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen paid for its recovery; he was buried in the Worms Jewish cemetery and Wimpfen was interred beside him.
Rare case where surviving physical monuments corroborate the narrative. The paired stones are extant and photographed; the research pass has not attached a URL I could verify.
|
archaeology tradition | ★★★★☆ |
|