SOLOMON BEN JUDAH "OF DREUX"

SOLOMON BEN JUDAH "OF DREUX" (or Rouen; 12^th–13^th centuries), French scholar and tosafist. Solomon was one of the eminent pupils of *Isaac b. Samuel of Dampierre. He was regarded as one of the leaders of French Jewry in his time, and was one of the seven French scholars to whom Meir *Abulafia addressed his letter of complaint against the Provençal scholars because of their attitude to Maimonides' view of the resurrection. He is called Solomon ha-Kadosh ("the saintly"), and sometimes simply "Ha-Kadosh," apparently because of his piety and asceticism. Both contemporary and later scholars relied on his customs. Solomon is mentioned in the standard tosafot to a number of tractates, in those of a pupil of Rabbenu Perez to Bava Kama and Bava Meẓia, and to a considerable extent in the works of the tosafists of England, which have been discovered during recent years. There is also mention of tosafot by Solomon himself which are no longer extant. He also apparently engaged in biblical exegesis since, in addition to quotations from him occurring in the collections of the commentaries of the tosafists to the Pentateuch, he is known to have been the teacher of Meir of Etoile, who engaged exclusively in biblical exegesis. Another of his pupils was *Samuel b. Solomon of Falaise.

Findings of the 1970s on indicate that R. Solomon was associated with Rouen and not Dreux.

bibliography:

Gross, Gal Jud, 171–3, 626; Urbach, Tosafot, index.

[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]