Bamberg, Samuel ben Baruch
BAMBERG, SAMUEL BEN BARUCH
BAMBERG, SAMUEL BEN BARUCH (first half of the 13th century), rabbi and paytan. Samuel was born in Metz, but lived in Bamberg, after which he was called. He studied under his father, *Baruch b. Samuel of Mainz, and *Eliezer b. Samuel of Metz. He corresponded on halakhic problems with *Eliezer b. Joel ha-Levi, *Simḥah b. Samuel of Speyer, and *Isaac b. Moses of Vienna, and was highly esteemed by leading contemporary scholars. Like his father, he was a talented poet, and fragments of his prayer book have survived. The name is mentioned in the Memorbuch of Nuremberg, but it is difficult to assume that he was one of the martyrs there. *Meir b. Baruch of Rothenberg was his pupil. For a time Samuel was regarded as the author of Likkutei ha-Pardes (Venice, 1519), but this view is no longer accepted. Of his works no more than excerpts and fragments of his responsa remain. His decisions are of a very independent nature, though his style is modest and austere.
bibliography:
Michael, Or, nos. 1203, 1205; Urbach, Tosafot, 354–6, passim; A. Eckstein, Geschichte der Juden im ehemaligen Fuerstbistum Bamberg (1898), 140, 297–8.
[Itzhak Alfassi]