Judah ben Kalonymus ben Moses of Mainz

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JUDAH BEN KALONYMUS BEN MOSES OF MAINZ

JUDAH BEN KALONYMUS BEN MOSES OF MAINZ (d. c. 1200), German scholar, halakhic authority, paytan, and kabbalist. He was the pupil of Shemariah b. Mordecai in Speyer, and of *Judah he-Ḥasid, who taught him mysticism. During the Third Crusade (1189–93) Judah braced his community to face the approaching trials and inspired them to repentance. Among his prominent pupils were his son Eleazar (who stated that he had received the mystical interpretation of the prayers and other kabbalistic knowledge from his father), *Eliezer b. Joel ha-Levi, and *Baruch b. Samuel, the author of Sefer ha-Ḥokhmah. His halakhic decisions are quoted in the works of the earlier authorities. He wrote seliḥot and piyyutim.

bibliography:

Landshuth, Ammudei, 78; Davidson, Oẓar 4 (1933), 392; Aptowitzer, Mavo le-Sefer Ravyah (1938), 252, 342–3; Urbach, Tosafot, 303f., 321–4.

[Yehoshua Horowitz]