Gershom ben Judah

Training under Yehuda HaKohen ben Meir is recorded. Yaakov ben Yakar, Yitzchak HaLevi and Yitzchak ben Yehuda are recorded as having studied under Gershom ben Judah. The recorded working language is German and Hebrew. The field of work recorded is Talmud and Halakha. Places of work recorded in the authority are Mainz, Germany and Ashkenaz. Works named in the authority record are Rabbenu Gershom’s Edict.

• Name — Gershom ben Judah • Native Name — רבינו גרשום • Other Names — Rabbeinu Gershom, Gershom Me'Or Hagolah • Born — 960 • Birthplace — Metz • Died — 1040

Gershom was born in Metz in 960. After his first wife died he married a widow named Bonna and settled at Mainz, where he taught the Talmud. During his lifetime Mainz became a center of Torah and Jewish scholarship for many Jewish communities in Europe that had formerly been connected with the Talmudic academies in Babylonia.

Questions of religious law were addressed to him from all countries, and measures which he authorized had legal force among all the Jews of Europe. Gershom's literary activity was similarly fruitful. He is celebrated for his works in the field of Biblical exegesis, the Masorah, and lexicography. His school composed glosses on the text of the Talmud, and wrote commentaries on several treatises of the latter which were very popular and gave an impulse to the production of other works of the kind. His selichot were inspired by the bloody persecutions of his time. Gershom also left a large number of rabbinical responsa, which are scattered throughout various collections. He is the author of Seliha 42 – Zechor Berit Avraham ("Remember the Covenant of Abraham"), a liturgical poem recited by Ashkenazic Jews during the season of Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, which includes the following stanza: The Holy City and its regions are turned to shame and to spoils and all its desirable things are buried and hidden and nothing is left except this Torah.

He is famous for his religious bans within Judaism, which include: • The prohibition of polygamy; • The prohibition of divorcing a woman against her will; • The modification of the rules concerning those who became apostates under compulsion; • The prohibition of reading another person's private mail. The influence of his ban can be seen in mail from the Middle Ages. A letter would contain the seal "B'chadrag" which meant that it was forbidden to open except by the recipient under the ban of Rabbeinu Gershom. His religious bans are still in force for Ashkenazi religious Jews and are used for establishment of law in modern Israel.