Samson Ben Samson (Called Harash, And By Anagram Ha-Sar [= "The Prince" Of Coucy])

French tosafist; flourished at the end of the twelfth and in the first half of the thirteenth century. Many of his explanations are found in the tosafot to the Talmud. He is mentioned also as a Biblical commentator. Samson was a descendant of Joseph b. Samuel Bonfils, a nephew of the tosafist Judah of Corbeil, and a brother-in-law of Moses of Coucy, who in "SeMaG" often quotes him. In the glosses of Perez on "SeMaG" (Prohibitory Laws, 111) he is erroneously called ; hence Gedaliah ibn Yaḥya ("Shalshelet ha-Ḳabbalah," ed. Venice, p. 55a) and after him Grätz ("Gesch." vii. 61) falsely state that Samson ben Abraham of Sens was a brother-in-law or Moses of Coucy.

Seal of Samson ben Samson.(In the British Museum.)

Samson was a disciple of Isaac'ben Samuel the Elder of Dampierre and one of the prominent rabbis to whom Meïr ben Todros Abulafia addressed his letter of protest against Maimonides. Isaac ben Moses of Vienna, with whom Samson corresponded, was one of his pupils. Many of Samson's ritual decisions are mentioned in the rabbinical works "Or Zarua'," "SeMaG," "Orḥot Ḥayyim," and "Pisḳe Reḳanati."

Bibliography:

  * Conforte, Ḳore ha-Dorot, p. 18a;
  * Gross, Gallia Judaica, pp. 554-556;
  * Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, No. 1230;
  * Neubauer, in Geiger's Jüd. Zeit. ix. 217;
  * Zunz, Z. G. p. 204.



D. S. Man.