Moses ben Abraham of Pontoise
MOSES BEN ABRAHAM OF PONTOISE
MOSES BEN ABRAHAM OF PONTOISE (12th century), French tosafist. Moses was a pupil of Jacob *Tam. The Sefer ha-Yashar of R. Tam discusses a number of problems, concerned mainly with the clarification of the plain meaning of various talmudic passages, which Moses put before his teacher (Responsa nos. 51, 52, 69–70). The theoretical nature of most of the questions, and the answers and their importance for an understanding of the relevant talmudic passages, led to their inclusion, in substance, in the standard tosafot, as well as in the works of such rishonim as *Mordecai b. Hillel, *Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg, and others. The tosafists also mention Moses in connection with other subjects, and they cite his comments in the various collections of their biblical commentaries. A short verse of two lines by Moses, coming at the end of the list of positive precepts in the *Azharot of Elijah ha-Zaken, together with a commentary to it, has been preserved (Kobez al Jad, 1 (1936), 8).
bibliography:
Urbach, Tosafot, 111–3.
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]