Rabbeinu Meshullam son of Jacob (Meshullam ben Ya'akov) also known as Rabbeinu Meshullam hagodol (Rabbi Meshullem the great) was a Franco-Jewish

History of the Jews in France

The history of the Jews of France dates back over 2,000 years. In the early Middle Ages, France was a center of Jewish learning, but persecution increased as the Middle Ages wore on...

 Talmud

Talmud

The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

ist of the twelfth century CE. He had a Talmudic Yeshiva

Yeshiva

Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...

 in Lunel

Lunel

Lunel is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France. Lunel is located east of Montpellier and southwest of Nîmes .-History:The ancient Roman site of Ambrussum is located nearby. The troubadour Folquet de Lunel was from Lunel....

 which produced several famous men, and was an intimate friend of Abraham ben Isaac, Av beth din

Beth din

A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...

of Narbonne

Narbonne

Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...

, who addressed to him several responsa

Responsa

Responsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Empire:Roman law recognised responsa prudentium, i.e...

, and spoke of him in high terms. His Talmudic decisions are quoted in Sefer ha-Terumot.

Rabbeinu Meshullam was interested also in philosophy. According to Rabbeinu Yehudah ibn Tibbon

Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon

Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon was a translator and physician.Born in Granada, he left Spain in 1150, probably on account persecution by the Almohades, and went to Lunel in southern France. Benjamin of Tudela mentions him as a physician there in 1160...

, whom he encouraged to translate Bahya ibn Paquda

Bahya ibn Paquda

Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived at Zaragoza, Spain, in the first half of the eleventh century...

's Al-Hidayah ila Fara'id al-Qulub into Hebrew (Chovot ha-Levavot

Chovot ha-Levavot

Chovot HaLevavot or Ḥovot HaLebabot, , is the primary work of the Jewish philosopher Bahya ibn Paquda, full name Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda...

or "Duties of the Heart"), he wrote several works dealing with moral philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

, advised and assisted other Jewish writers, and possessed a large library. Rabbeinu Yehudah Ibn Tibbon is never weary of praising Rabbeinu Meshullam's zeal in investigating the various branches of knowledge.

Rabbeinu Meshullam was the father of the renowned Rabbeinu Asher ben Meshullam

Asher ben Meshullam

Rabbeinu Asher ben Meshullam was a Jewish theologian and Talmudic scholar who lived at Lunel in the second half of the twelfth century CE. A renowned Talmudist, he was a son of the well-known Rabbeinu Meshullam ben Jacob , and a pupil of Rabbeinu Joseph ibn Plat and the Ravad of Posquières, whose...

. Among Rabbeinu Meshullam's disciples, are the Ravad

Abraham ben David

Rabbeinu Abraham ben David was a Provençal rabbi, a great commentator on the Talmud, Sefer Halachot of Rabbi Yitzhak Alfasi and Mishne Torah of Maimonides, and is regarded as a father of Kabbalah and one of the key and important links in the chain of Jewish mystics...

 and the Baal Hama'or

Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona

Zerachiah ben Isaac Ha-Levi Gerondi , called the ReZaH, RaZBI or Baal Ha-Maor was born about 1125 in the town of Girona, Spain – hence the name Gerondi – and died after 1186 in Lunel...

. Rabbeinu Meshullam died in Lunel

Lunel

Lunel is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France. Lunel is located east of Montpellier and southwest of Nîmes .-History:The ancient Roman site of Ambrussum is located nearby. The troubadour Folquet de Lunel was from Lunel....

 in 1170.

Resources

• Peiginsky, A. and Solomon Schechter
  Solomon Schechter
  Solomon Schechter was a Moldavian-born Romanian and English rabbi, academic scholar, and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and architect of the American Conservative Jewish...
  
  . "Meshullam b. Jacob". Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906; which cites:
• Henri Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 229.

• Gitlitz, David M. & Linda Kay Davidson. “Pilgrimage and the Jews’’ (Westport: CT: Praeger, 2006), 43-.