Yehuda ben Meir, also known as Yehudah Leontin, was a German
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
and
Talmud
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 cente ...
ic scholar of the late tenth and early eleventh century CE, who was from
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 (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
.
Yehuda was the principal teacher of
Gershom ben Judah
Gershom ben Judah, (c. 960 -1040) best known as Rabbeinu Gershom ( he, רבנו גרשום, "Our teacher Gershom") and also commonly known to scholars of Judaism by the title ''Rabbeinu Gershom Me'Or Hagolah'' ("Our teacher Gershom the light of the ...
, and his work was highly influential on the later writings of
Rashi
Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...
. Yehuda was surnamed, according to some sources, either "Léon", "Léonṭe", "Léonṭin", "Sire Léon", and "Sire Léonṭin", and was designated as "the grand" and "the
gaon."
His grandson was also Rabbi Yehuda ben Meir of Mainz who was the author of ''
Sefer ha-Dinim''
[ספר הדינים, מבוא מאת אברהם גרוסמן, הוצאת מרכז זלמן שז"ר, תשל"ז] which contains an account of his travels and those of other
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s in Eastern Europe. In this work,
Przemyśl
Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was pr ...
and
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
are mentioned as trading sites along the
Radhanite
The Radhanites or Radanites (; ar, الرذنية, ''ar-Raðaniyya'') were early medieval Jewish merchants, active in the trade between Christendom and the Muslim world during roughly the 8th to 10th centuries.
Many trade routes previously esta ...
trade network.
References
Jewish explorers
10th-century German rabbis
11th-century German rabbis
10th-century births
11th-century deaths
Rabbis from Mainz
Kohanim writers of Rabbinic literature
10th-century German writers
11th-century German writers
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