- On the responsa literature, see: Menachem Elon, Jewish Law: History, Sources, Principles, trans. B. Auerbach and M. J. Sykes, 4 vols. (Philadelphia and Jerusalem, 1994), 3:1453–528.
- See: Joshua Prawer, The History of the Jews in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford, 1988), 253–54, 258–91, and index; Eitan P. Fishbane, As Light before Dawn: The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist (Stanford, CA. 2009), 20–33; Jonathan Rubin, Learning in a Crusader City. Intellectual Activity and Intercultural Exchanges in Acre, 1191–1291 (Cambridge, 2018). For Hebrew publications on this issue, as well as on issues discussed below, see Emanuel, “From Where the Sun.”
- See Simcha Emanuel, “Pages from the Halakhic Notebook of a Thirteenth-Century Pilgrim,” Ginzei Qedem 7 (2011): 145–65, esp. 154–59 [in Hebrew].
- See: Prawer, The History of the Jews, 279–280; Harvey J. Hames, Like Angels on Jacob’s Ladder: Abraham Abulafia, the Franciscans, and Joachimism (Albany, NY, 2007); David Abulafia, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean (Oxford, 2011), 341–42.
- See: Jacob Mann, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, 2 vols. (Cincinnati, 1931–35), 1:419–25; Prawer, The History of the Jews, 282–91.
- See: Fishbane, As Light.
- See: Rabbi Moses Nahmanides (Ramban): Explorations in his Religious and Literary Virtuosity, ed. Isadore Twersky (Cambridge, MA, 1983); Prawer, The History of the Jews, 276–78.
- See: Yosef Ofer, “The Two Lists of Addenda to Nahmanides’ Torah Commentary: Who Wrote Them?”, Jewish Studies Quarterly 15 (2008): 321–52.
- See: Robert Deutsch, “Coinage of the First Jewish Revolt Against Rome: Iconography, Minting Authority, Metallurgy,” in The Jewish Revolt against Rome: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Mladen Popović (Leiden, 2011), 362–64.
- See: Isaiah Shachar, “The Seal of Nahmanides,” in Jerusalem in the Middle Ages, ed. Benjamin Z. Kedar (Jerusalem, 1979), 137–47 [in Hebrew, with English summary on pp. xv–xvi]; Magen Broshi and Yoram Nir-El, “Sobre l’autenticitat del segell de Mossé ben Nahman de Girona trobat a la plana d’Acre,” Tamid 2 (1998–1999): 201–3.
- On the ties between European Jewry and the city of Acre, see also: Yitzhak Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, trans. L. Schoffman, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1966), 1:209–10; David Jacoby, “L’expansion occidentale dans le Levant: les Vénitiens à Acre dans la seconde moitié du treizième siècle,” Journal of Medieval History 3 (1977): 247–49 [repr. in idem, Recherches sur la Méditerranée orientale du XIIe au XVe siècle: peuples, sociétés, économies (London, 1979), no. VII].
- On him, see: Irving A. Agus, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1947); Israel Jacob Yuval, “Meir ben Baruch aus Rothenburg (um 1200–1293), ‘supremus magister’,” in Geschichte und Kultur der Juden aus Bayern. Lebensläufe, ed. Manfred Treml and Wolf Weigand (Munich, 1988), 21–24; Ephraim Kanarfogel, “Preservation, Creativity, and Courage: The Life and Works of R. Meir of Rothenburg,” Jewish Book Annual 50 (1992): 249–59; and most recently Claudia Steffes-Maus, “Die Juden im mittelalterlichen Rothenburg ob der Tauber,” in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Geschichte der Stadt und ihres Umlandes, ed. Horst F. Rupp and Karl Borchardt (Darmstadt, 2016), 136–55.
- On him, see: Joseph Perles, R. Salomo b. Abraham b. Adereth: Sein Leben und seine Schriften (Breslau, 1863); Isidore Epstein, The Responsa of Rabbi Solomon ben Adreth of Barcelona as a Source of the History of Spain (London, 1925); Baer, A History of the Jews, 1:281–305.
- See: Simcha Emanuel, “Unpublished Responsa of R. Meir of Rothenburg as a Source for Jewish History,” in The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries), ed. Christoph Cluse (Turnhout, 2004), 283–93.
- See: Perles, R. Salomo, 9–11.
- Shmuel Glick, Seride Teshuvot of the Ottoman Empire Sages from the Cairo Genizah in the Elkan Nathan Adler Collection of the Library at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Ramat Gan, 2016), 2:589–95, quote at 589 [in Hebrew].
- On R. Meir’s imprisonment and his desire to reach Palestine, see: Agus, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, 1:125–52; Avraham Grossman, “Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg and Eretz Yisrael,” Cathedra 84 (1997): 63–84 [in Hebrew]; Simcha Emanuel, “Did Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg Refuse to Be Ransomed?,” Jewish Studies Quarterly, 24 (2017): 23–38.
- See Deut. 25:5–10.
- “Regarding Reuven who gave his wife a conditional writ of divorce effective this day if he dies from this illness, and in the meantime he got up and walked to the synagogue and the market with no walking stick [...] and 28 days after giving the writ he became bedbound and died ... A similar case was sent to me from Acre and I forbade it”: Responsa of R. Meir of Rothenburg, ed. Y. Farbstein, 3 vols. (Jerusalem, 2014–15), 2:629–30, §104 [108] [in Hebrew]; an English translation appears in Agus, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, 1:385–87, no. 378. Several scholars have suggested that R. Meir’s responsum was sent to a city in Germany (Aachen, for example), and that “Acre” is an error; see: H. J. Zimmels, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland im 13. Jahrhundert (Vienna, 1926), 75, n. 32 (additional references appear there). Urbach was correct, however, when he wrote that the text of the responsum should not be doubted; see: Ephraim E. Urbach, The Tosaphists: Their History, Writings and Methods, 4th expanded ed., 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 1980), 2:541, n. 2 [in Hebrew].
- MS Parma, Palatina Parm. 3525, 102b–110b, §§218–20; MS Cambridge, University Library Add. 500, 63b–67b, §§233–42. In the printed editions of Responsa Rashba, the responsa are scattered. See: Responsa Rashba, ed. A. Zaleznik (Jerusalem, 1997–2005), 5:56, pp. 31–35; 1:1178, pp. 523–24; 1:30, pp. 19–20; Responsa Rashba Ha-ẖadashot, 92–94, §147; 1:53, pp. 29–31; 1:1182, pp. 526–27 [in Hebrew].
- ʽOrlah: fruit of the first three years, which is forbidden; see Lev. 19:23: “When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden (ve-ʽaraltem ʽorlato). Three years it shall be forbidden (arelim) for you, not to be eaten.” Kil’ayim: mingled seed; see ibid. 19: “you shall not sow your field with mingled seed (kil’ayim).”
- R. Shimshon b. Avraham of Sens, in his commentary on the Mishna. R. Shimshon wrote his commentary in France and later moved to Palestine in 1212, dying there in 1214. On him, see: Urbach, The Tosaphists, 1:271–318.
- Here Rashba quotes R. Eliyahu.
- m. Qiddushin 4:12.
- b. Pesaẖim 30a.
- See: The Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah), Book 5: The Book of Holiness, trans. L. Rabinowitz and P. Grossman (New Haven, 1965), “Laws of Forbidden Intercourse,” chap. 22.
- See: Emanuel, “Pages.”
- Yoel Friedman, “Pages from the Halakhic Notebook of R. Eliyahu of Acre,” Emunat Itekha 93 (2012): 8–23 [in Hebrew]; Shlomo Gottesman, “Rulings of R. Eliyahu of Acre: New Pages from a Halakhic Notebook,” Yeshurun 32 (2015): 30–33 [in Hebrew]. Additional pages of this work are being discovered; see: idem, “Ruling on the Laws of Mourning from One of the Medieval Rabbis,” Yeshurun 13 (2003): 51–64 [in Hebrew]; Ya’aqov Yitzẖak Miller, “A New Fragment from the Halakhic Notebook of a French Scholar from Palestine,” Qovetz Ḥitzei Giborim Pleitat Soferim 7 (2014): 18–20 [in Hebrew]; Shlomo Gottesman, “Rulings of R. Eliyahu of Acre [C],” Yeshurun 33 (2015): 48–57 [in Hebrew]; idem, “Rulings of R. Eliyahu of Acre [D],” Yeshurun 34 (2016): 90–98 [in Hebrew].
- Cambridge, University Library T-S NS 84.36; Emanuel, “Pages,” 161 and the discussion on 151. It is possible that an additional bit of information about the people of Acre or its environs can be found in the author’s discussion of the (possibly theoretical, possibly practical) question about the status of one who accepted wax candles from a friend in order to light them at the graves of the righteous, but who kept the candles and did not use them for the desired purpose. The practice of lighting candles by the graves of the righteous was widespread in Palestine at the time, but only there; see: ibid. 162 and the discussion on 152–54.
- See: Hebräische Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen während des Ersten Kreuzzuges, ed. Eva Haverkamp, MGH Hebräische Texte aus dem mittelalterlichen Deutschland 1 (Hanover, 2005), 254–55.
- Israel Jacob Yuval, “Juden, Hussiten und Deutsche nach einer hebräischen Chronik,” Zeitschrift für historische Forschung, Beiheft 13: Juden in der christlichen Umwelt während des späten Mittelalters, ed. Alfred Haverkamp and Franz-Josef Ziwes (Berlin, 1992), 59–102, esp. the text on 98–101 and the discussion on 70–72, 78–85.
- Responsa Rashba 1:485, p. 251: “You asked: wheat that fell into water and was then removed and dried, but then was mixed into a large amount of wheat [...].”
- R. Aharon Hakohen, Orẖot Ḥayim (Florence, 1750), Laws of Ḥametz and Matza, §42 (71a) [in Hebrew].
- The city of Saintes is c.115 km north of Bordeaux. For information about Jews from this city, see: Henri Gross, Gallia Judaica (Paris, 1897), 659–60. Gross believes that R. Yosef was of Spanish origin, hailing from one of several Spanish cities called Los Santos.
- Igor Holanda de Souza, “Philosophical Commentaries on the Preface to the Guide of the Perplexed, c.1250–1362” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2014), 310. On Moshe of Salerno and his commentary, see ibid., 66–68, 111–17.
- Responsa Rashba 1:487, p. 252.
- Orẖot Ḥayim, Laws of Reading a Torah Scroll, §5 (p. 23d).
- See: Israel M. Ta-Shma, Early Franco-German Ritual and Custom, 3rd ed. (Jerusalem, 1999), 171–81, 361 [in Hebrew].
- This is how the city was known to the crusaders; the Arabic name was Jubayl, and the Greek name was Byblos.
- See The Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah), Book 4: The Book of Women, trans. I. Klein (New Haven 1972), Laws of Divorce, chapter 11.
- See above, n. 18.
- Perhaps this means that they do not specify any person by name; that is, the scholars of Gibelet customarily sent questions to Acre without specifying the name of the scholar whose opinion they sought. Perhaps it means the opposite: that the scholars of Gibelet did not specify their own names in their question; rather, they sent the questions anonymously. Another explanation was proposed by Ish-Shalom: according to him, “no man signs” means “no man issues a ruling.” That is, the people of Gibelet did not render their own rulings on questions that arose, instead sending them to the scholars of Acre. See: Michael Ish-Shalom, In the Shadow of Kingdoms: The History of Jewish Settlement in Palestine from the Period after the Bar Kokhba Revolt until the Ottoman Conquest (Tel Aviv, 1976), 290 n. 67 [in Hebrew].
- MS Cambridge, University Library, Add. 500, pp. 270b–271a, §1213 (=Responsa Rashba 6:69, pp. 15–16).
- The scant information we have about Jewish settlement in Gibelet comes from the traveler Benjamin of Tudela and from several other Cairo Genizah fragments. See: The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, ed. and trans. M. N. Adler (London, 1907), 28; J. Braslawski, “Genizah Fragments concerning Acre and Byblos,” Eretz Yisrael: Archaeological, Historical, and Geographical Studies 1 (1951): 153–57 [in Hebrew]. See also Mordechai A. Friedman, “A Note on the Place of Composition of the Prayer Book of R. Shlomo bar Natan,” Asufat Qiryat Sefer (addendum to vol. 68), Jerusalem 1998, 154 [in Hebrew]. On the city in general, see: The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden 1960–2009), 2:568, s.v. “Djubayl.”
- Elchanan Reiner, “Pilgrims and Pilgrimages to Eretz Yisrael, 1099–1517” (PhD diss., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1988), 82, n. 164 [in Hebrew]. On other cities that had contemporaneous Babylonian and Palestinian communities, see: S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 6 vols. (Berkeley and London, 1967–93), 2:6; Mordechai Akiva Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine: A Cairo Geniza Study, 2 vols. (Tel Aviv, 1980–81), 1:29 and n. 67.
- Responsa Rashba 1:346–59, pp. 158–65.
- MS Cambridge, University Library Add. 500, 261b–273a, §§1149–1221.
- R. Yosef of Saintes regularly uses terms of “astonishment” (“pele”). (This form was also used once by R. Eliyahu of Acre; see above, at n. 29.) In general, R. Yosef uses the word in this form, and occasionally with slight deviations. Thus, for example, in his first question: “In my opinion, this is astonishing” (“lefi da’ati zeh pele”); in the second: “this is astonishing to me” (“pele li”); in the third: “this, too, is astonishing” (“gam zeh pele”); in the fourth: “astonishing” (“pele”); in the fifth: “it is astonishing” (“hineh zeh pele”); and so forth, for almost every question.
- Dozens more questions appear here, all of which ask for explanations of passages from Tractate Yevamot of the Babylonian Talmud.
- Here follows another series of questions that seek explanations of passages in several tractates of the Talmud.
- For a list of scholars who were active in Acre during this period, see above, Section A. For pieces of information on books that were available in the city, see: Jonathan Jacobs and Yosef Ofer, Nahmanides’ Torah Commentary Addenda Written in Eretz Yisrael (Jerusalem, 2013), 45–51 [in Hebrew]. See also Reiner, “Pilgrims and Pilgrimages,” 83.
- MS Cambridge, 263b, §1160; 267b, §1167; 268a, §1196 (=Responsa Rashba 4:39, p. 39; 4:220, p. 113; 4:302, pp. 152–53).
- MS Cambridge, 272a, §1217 (=Responsa Rashba 1:355, p. 161).
- See above, n. 7.
- See: Israel M. Ta-Shma, Talmud Commentary in Europe and North Africa, Part II: 1200–1400 (Jerusalem, 1999–2000), 57–58 [in Hebrew].
- See above, n. 7.
- Naẖmanides is mentioned in Rashba’s responsum to R. Eliyahu with a honorific reserved for the dead. If this is not the emendation of a compiler or a copyist, we may conclude from this, too, that Rashba’s responsa to R. Eliyahu were written after 1270.
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