MENAHEM OF MERSEBURG

MENAHEM OF MERSEBURG (first half of the 14^th century), one of the leading scholars of Saxony, Germany. Menahem was a pupil of Isaac b. Ḥayyim of Oppenheim (apparently to be identified with the son of *Ḥayyim b. Isaac Or Zaru'a, who was a pupil of *Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg). Menahem was renowned in his time as a talmudic scholar, and was particularly well known for his takkanot which determined relations between the individual and the community in all matters affecting the communal life of the Jew – especially in the subjects of taxation, personal injuries, and fines. Especially important was the takkanah in which he abolished the right of me'un (see *child marriage; responsa Judah Mintz (Venice, 1553) no. 13), which had been a cause of great tragedies in Jewish family life, particularly as a result of the widespread custom of child marriage. Some 150 years later his takkanah gave rise to violent controversy when some wanted to explain it as having been instituted only in cases where the child had been influenced to exercise it (see Jacob *Falk). Solomon *Luria writes in the Yam shel Shelomo to Yevamot (13: 17): "It has become customary during recent years not to permit me'un, this having originated with Menahem, author of Me'il Ẓedek, who carefully weighed up and enacted many restrictive and preventive measures and was a great expert and scholar, and his takkanot and restrictions spread throughout the whole of Germany." Here the name of Menahem's book is mentioned; only fragments of it have been preserved. Quotations from it are found in talmudic works of the 15^th and 16^th centuries, particularly in those of Jacob *Weil and Solomon *Luria, as well as in the glosses of Moses Ḥazzan to the Minhagim le-Kol ha-Shanah of *Isaac of Tyrnau, and in the Shitah Mekubbeẓet of Bezalel *Ashkenazi. Jacob Weil describes Menahem of Merseburg as an eminent scholar in his generation living in Saxony. "He laid down many laws and decisions which he collected, and from them compiled an extensive work. That book is to be found in Saxony and the minhag of Saxony completely follows it. Many of these rulings have been extracted from his book and are in my possession…" (Resp. Maharyu 133). These words were written in reply to questioners who were unaware of Menahem's identity and turned to Weil for information. In fact, at the end of the printed editions of the responsa of Jacob Weil there is a small collection, extracted from the Me'il Ẓedek, entitled Nimmukei Menaḥem Merseburg. It is entirely devoted to the judicial relations between individuals and communities. Among Menahem's pupils was Yom Tov Lipmann *Muelhausen, author of Seder Tikkun ha-Get which was based on his tradition (Yam shel Shelomo, Git. 2:5).

bibliography:

Joseph b. Moses, Leket Yosher, ed. by J. Freimann, 2 (1904), xiiv.

[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]