David ben Meshullam of Speyer

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DAVID BEN MESHULLAM OF SPEYER

DAVID BEN MESHULLAM OF SPEYER (12th century), liturgical poet. His father was apparently the scholar R. Meshullam who lived in Mainz in 1034. On Feb. 19, 1090, David was received in Speyer by Emperor Henry iv as representative of the Jewish community, together with Judah b. Kalonymus and Moses b. Jekuthiel. In a remarkable seliḥah for the eve of the Day of Atonement, beginning Elohim al Domi le-Dami ("God! Be not silent on my blood"), still in use in the German and Polish rituals although the original text has been mutilated by censorship, he describes the horrors of the First Crusade.

bibliography:

H. Bresslau, in: zgjd, 1 (1887), 156–7; Germ Jud, 1 (1934), 329, 336; H. Brody and S. Wiener, Mivḥar ha-Shirah ha-Ivrit (1922), 221–3; S. Bernfeld, Sefer ha-Dema'ot, 1 (1924), 199–202; A.M. Habermann, Gezerot Ashkenaz (1945), 69–71; Davidson, Oẓar, 1 (1924), 211, no. 4626.

[Jefim (Hayyim) Schirmann]

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