Baruch ben Samuel (died April 25, 1221), also called Baruch of Mainz to distinguish him from
Baruch ben Isaac
Baruch ben Isaac, called usually from Worms or from France ( Tzarfat) was born approx. in 1140 and deceased in 1212 in Eretz Israel where he went in 1208 together with his friend Samson ben Abraham of Sens. He is not to be identified with another ...
, was a
Talmudist
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the center ...
and prolific ''
payyeṭan'', who flourished in
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...
at the beginning of the thirteenth century.
Writings
He was a pupil of
Moses ben Solomon ha-Kohen of Mainz,
Eliezer ben Samuel
Eliezer ben Samuel of Metz (died 1198) was a Tosafist and the author of the halachic work ''Sefer Yereim'' (Vilna 1892). An abridgment of this work was produced by Benjamin ben Abraham Anaw Benjamin ben Abraham Anaw (also known as Benjamin ben Ab ...
of Metz and
Judah ben Kalonymus; the judicial sentences of all he frequently cites. Baruch was one of the most eminent German rabbis of his time, and one of the leading signatories of the
Takkanot Shum
The ( he, תקנות שו"ם), 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 th ...
. Several of his responsa have been preserved in the German collections; most of them refer to the rabbinic civil law. His ''Sefer ha-Ḥokmah'' (''Book of Wisdom''), still extant in the time of
Bezalel ben Abraham Ashkenazi, but now lost, appears also to have been largely legal in character. Early writers cite also a commentary by Baruch on the treatise ''
Nedarim'', which was lost at an early date.
Of Baruch's poetical activity more is known. His penitential poems and dirges, as well as his hymns for the Sabbath and for weddings, which made him one of the most popular of the payyeṭanim, were incorporated into the German and the Polish rituals. Baruch displays a great command of language; the
seliḥot, in particular, being frequently characterized by genuine poetic fervor. The following is a specimen of these poems, translated into English from a German version by Zunz:
"Jeshurun's God, beyond compare, Enthroned above the clouds, Who dwelleth in the heavens high, Yet still on earth is ever nigh; Mid tears and sadness, songs and gladness, To Him my gaze I turn, Who all my feeling, thought, and action, Is ever sure to learn."
Children
Rabbi Samuel ben Baruch of Bamberg studied under his father and Eliezer b. Samuel of Metz who also became a tosafist.
Similar names
Baruch, the subject of this article, should not be confounded with Baruch of Greece, a Tosafist quoted several times in the
Tosafot
The Tosafot, Tosafos or Tosfot ( he, תוספות) 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.
The auth ...
and in Mordecai (compare
List of Tosafists
Tosafists were rabbis of France and Germany, who lived from the 12th to the mid-15th centuries, in the period of Rishonim. The Tosafists composed critical and explanatory glosses (questions, notes, interpretations, rulings and sources) on the Tal ...
).
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
* Azulai, ''Shem ha-Gedolim'', ed. Wilna, i. 38;
* Kohn, ''Mordecai ben Hillel'', p. 102;
* Michael, ''Or ha-Ḥayyim'', No. 637;
* Grätz (who, without good reason, considered the payyeṭan Baruch, who died in 1221, as not identical with Baruch, author of Sefer ha-Ḥokmah, who, according to Grätz, was still living in 1223), ''Gesch. der Juden'', vii. 21;
* Zunz, ''S. P.'' pp. 268–270 (contains a translation of two pieces);
* idem, ''Literaturgesch.'' pp. 306–309;
* idem, ''Z. G.'' pp. 54, 55, 59, 193;
* idem, ''Monatstage'', xxii.;
* Landshuth, ''Ammude ha'Abodah'', p. 55.L. G.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baruch Ben Samuel
13th-century German rabbis
1221 deaths
Rabbis from Mainz
Jewish poets
German Orthodox rabbis
Year of birth unknown
Authors of books on Jewish law