Rosh enjoys a sixfold celebrity. (1) He was a descendant of a long line of distinguished ancestors, among whom Raban (g.v.) may be specially named. (2) He was “the distinguished of the most distinguished disciples” of the foremost rabbi of his age in Germany, viz., Rabbenu Meir b. Barukh, better known under the name of R. Meir of Rotheuburg, whose tragic fate ( = Jacot), a converted Jew, recognizedand betrayed him to his master, the bishop (? ∣)QJ∏) of Basel, who had him arrested by Captain Meinert (Meinhard) of Gorz, who handed him over to the emperor. Rudolph of Hapsburg. who had only a dozen years before or so (to speak in the great German poet’s language) “made an end, after the long destructive strife, to the emperorless, terrible time,” was, though very rich in dignities, as yet comparatively poor in purse. He therefore, in the Iiiidsummer of the same year (to extort money from the Jews), caused the poor rabbi to be imprisoned in the tower of Ensisheiin (in Alsace) and subsequently in other places,— e.g., Weissenburg, or Wasserburg (p^)1□K>)). Considerable sums were offered by the Jews for their revered chief, but the negotiations were brought to nought by the command of the rabbi himself, who would not permit more than a trifling sum to be given for his release (Resiial (7.«.), Yarn shel Shelornoh, on Gittin, iv. 66). He died in prison in 1293. Rudolph's successors, Adolph of Nassau (1291-1298) and Albrecht of Austria (1298-1308), were so heartless as not to deliver up for nearly fourteen years the poor rabbi’s corpse for burial, hoping to extort from the Jews even greater sums than they had originally offered to Rudolph for the rabbi alive. In 1307, however, a rich and pious but childless man, Alexander SUsskind Wimpfen of Frankfort, offered an enormous sum on the condition that the congregation of Worms should bury the rabbi s coιpse and should allow at his own death his body to rest near it (see Lewysohn, Sechzig Epitaphien . . . tu Worms, Frankfort-on-Main, 1855, 8vo, pp. 35-41). R. Meir of Rothenburg was not merely a flue Biblical and Rabbinic scholar but also a great Cabbalist, as R. David b. Yehudah Hasid testifies in his Mar’oth Hassobeoth (Camb. Univ. MS. Add. 664, leaf 72a). Most of his literary productions are incorporated with works of his disciples and the disciples of these disciples. For instance, some of his massoretico-ethical explanations are to be found in R. Ya’akob b. Asher’s so-called Ra'al Hatturim, and part of his commentary on the Mishnah is to be found in R. Yomtob Lipmann Heller’s Tosephoth Yomtob (see Mishnah). Other Rabbinic work of his is to be found in Rosh, Mordekhai, Ac. Butthere exists also independent Iiteratureofhis as (1) Tosaphoth on Yoma (in the editions of the Babylonian Talmud); (2) Responsa, in three volumes (i., Cremona, 1557, 4to; ii., Prague, 1608, fol., which contains, however, matter by other authors also, as Rabbenu Gershom, Rabbenu Tham, the Takkanoth Shum, Rules of Penitence, by R. Efazarof Worms, Ac.; iii., Lemberg, 1860, 4to); (3) Tashbes (see last note); (4) Rirekhoth Maharam (Riva di Trento, 1558, 8vo); (5) religious poems of considerable value, which are to be found in the Ashkenazic Mahzor. ] even more than his learning and piety has endeared him to all Jews down to this very day. (3) He was the father of eight great Rabbinic scholars. (4) He was in his own right, after 1293 in Germany and after 1310 everywhere, the greatest Talmudist. (5) He was the first rabbi of the Ashkenazic school who possessed powers of systematization. (6) He was a man not merely of the deepest piety but of the sternest and, if we may say so, the most savage morality. Rosh, in despair at the state of aflairs in Germany (some, however, say through his being involved in negotiations with the emperor for the delivery of the body of his master, which he could not bring to a successful issue), left his home and travelled aimlessly about with his numerous family till he arrived in Provence. There he would have remained gladly had not the. Maimonidean controversy broken out. He went therefore to Castile, where Toledo, jealous of Barcelona possessing such a great rabbi as R. Shelomoh Ibn Addereth was, received him with open arms and great respect and elected him their rabbi. Under his eyes the celebrated astronomical work Yesod '0lam, by R. Yishak b. Yoseph Yisraeli, was composed.

Of the numerous works by Rosh, which have been printed times innumerable, we can only mention the most important;—

(1) Commentary on the Pentateuch (see Hadar Zekenim, Leghorn, 1840, folio). (2) Commentary on the Mishnic treatises of the orders Zera ’ im and Tohoroth (see editions of the Babylonian Talmud). (3) Commentary on the whole Babylonian Talmud (ibid.; the Kissur Piseke Harosh is by Rabbenu Ya’akob, the author's son, see note 4). (4) Tosephe Harosh on several treatises (see Schiller-Szinessy, Catalogue, ii. pp. 76-94). (5) Responsa (Constantinople, 1517, folio, and reprints). (6) Halakhoth Kstannoth (see Talmud editions). (7) Hanhagah, Sevanh, Ac. (Testament, Ac., Venice, 1578, 16mo, and reprints). (S. M. S.-S.)