Samson ben Isaac of Chinon (c. 1260 – c. 1330) (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: שמשון מקינון) was a French

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 ...

who lived at

Chinon Chinon () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. The traditional province around Chinon, Touraine, became a favorite resort of French kings and their nobles beginning in the late 15th and early 16th centur ...

. In Talmudic literature he is generally called after his native place, Chinon (Hebr. קינון), and sometimes by the abbreviation MaHaRShaḲ. He was a contemporary of Peretz Kohen Gerondi, who declared Samson to be the greatest rabbinical authority of his time.As reported by

Isaac ben Sheshet Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet (or Barfat) (1326–1408) ( he, יצחק בן ששת) was a Spanish Talmudic authority, also known by his acronym, Rivash (). He was born at Valencia and settled early in life at Barcelona, where he studied at the scho ...

, Responsa, No. 157

Works

Samson was the author of the following works: *
Sefer Keritut
' (Constantinople, 1515), a methodology of the Talmud divided into five parts: ** ''Bet Middot,'' treating of the thirteen rules of R. Ishmael ** ''Bet ha-Miḳdash,'' on the rules for deductions by analogy and conclusions a fortiori ** ''Netibot 'Olam,'' containing explanations of the 32 rules of R. Eliezer ben Jose ha-Gelili ** ''Yemot 'Olam,'' giving the names of the

Tannaim ''Tannaim'' ( Amoraic Hebrew: תנאים , singular , ''Tanna'' "repeaters", "teachers") were the rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 10–220 CE. The period of the ''Tannaim'', also referred to as the Mis ...

and Amoraim, and setting forth a method for deciding between the contrary opinions of two doctors ** ''Leshon Limmudim,'' explanations of certain

halakic ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical command ...

decisions. The "Sefer Keritut," owing to its easy style and its author's great authority, became a classic. * ''Ḳonṭres,'' a commentary on the Talmudic treatises Erubin and Abodah Zarah; mentioned in the ''Sefer Keritut.'' * ''Bi'ur ha-Geṭ'' (Vienna MS. No. 48), on the laws concerning divorce. Samson wrote also responsa, several of which are quoted by

Joseph Colon Joseph Colon ben Solomon Trabotto, also known as Maharik, (c. 1420 in Chambéry – Pavia in 1480) was a 15th-century rabbi who is considered Italy's foremost Judaic scholar and Talmudist of his era. Early years Colon (whose name is related t ...

and

Solomon ben Adret Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet ( he, שלמה בן אברהם אבן אדרת or Solomon son of Abraham son of Aderet) (1235 – 1310) was a medieval rabbi, halakhist, and Talmudist. He is widely known as the Rashba (Hebrew: ), the Hebrew acronym ...

.Responsa, 3:1; 4:152 According to Gross, Samson was the author of the supercommentary on Ibn Ezra's commentary on the

Pentateuch The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

found by

Judah Mosconi Judah Leon ben Moses Mosconi (born 1328) was a Bulgarian scholar and Talmudist born at Ohrid. Owing to the wars which agitated Bulgaria in the 14th century, Mosconi left his native country about 1360. He traveled in all the three continents of the ...

at Perpignan between 1363 and 1375 (Halberstam MS.). As regards the word (ממרשילאה = "of Marseilles"), which appears in the manuscript after the name Samson of Chinon, Gross believes that Samson settled at Marseilles after the banishment of the Jews from France.

References

It has the following bibliography: * Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, i. 182; * Leopold Zunz, Z. G. p. 44; * S.D. Luzzatto, Halikot Kedem, p. 46; * Halberstam, in Jeshurun, 1866, pp. 167–168; Magazin, iii. 47; * Ernest Renan-

Adolf Neubauer Adolf Neubauer (11 March 1831 in Bittse, Hungary – 6 April 1907, London) was at the Bodleian Library and reader in Rabbinic Hebrew at Oxford University. Biography He was born in Bittse (Nagybiccse), Upper Hungary (now Bytča in Slovaki ...

, ''Les Rabbins Français'', p. 461; *

Henri Gross Heinrich Gross, writing also as Henri Gross (born Szenicz, Hungarian Kingdom, now Senica, Slovakia, 6 November 1835; died 1910), was a German rabbi. He was a pupil in rabbinical literature of Judah Aszod. After graduating from the Breslau semina ...

, ''Gallia Judaica'', pp. 581 et seq. {{authority control 1260 births 1330 deaths 13th-century French rabbis French Orthodox rabbis 14th-century French rabbis People from Chinon