Meir ben Samuel

Who is Meir ben Samuel?

Meïr ben Samuel, also known by the Hebrew acronym RaM for Rabbi Meir, was a French rabbi and tosafist, who was born in about 1060 in Ramerupt, and died after 1135. His father was an eminent scholar. Meïr received his education in the Talmudical schools of Lorraine, his principal teachers being Isaac ben Asher ha-Levi and Eleazar ben Isaac of Mainz, with whom he later carried on a correspondence.

Meïr married Rashi's second daughter, Jochebed, by whom he had three sons, Samuel ben Meïr, Isaac ben Meïr, and Jacob ben Meïr, all of them well-known scholars. According to Gross, Meïr had also a fourth son, Solomon. Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry's son Samuel, father of the tosafist Isaac the Elder, was Meïr's son-in-law. Meïr's son Isaac, the often-quoted tosafist, died in the prime of life, leaving seven children. This loss distressed the father to such an extent that he felt indisposed to answer a halakic question addressed to him by his friend Eleazar ben Nathan of Mainz.

Meïr attained a very great age, and is sometimes designated as "the old". From the fact that his grandson, Isaac ben Samuel, born about 1120, speaks of religious customs which he found conspicuous in his grandfather's house, and from other indications, it has been concluded that Meïr was still alive in 1135.