Moses Of Kiev

Russian Talmudist; lived in the first half of the twelfth century. Moses seems to have been in western Europe in consequence of the expulsion of the Jews from Kiev in 1124 (comp. Firkowitz in "Ha-Karmel," ii. 407). It is not impossible that he was a pupil of Jacob b. Meïr Tam, whom he seems to have known (see Tam's "Sefer ha-Yashar," No. 522, p. 29a, where Epstein reads correctly  instead of ). From Russia Moses carried on a correspondence with Samuel ben Ali, the head of the Babylonian academy, and through Moses Western scholars learned of an important legal decision of the Geonim which had been communicated to him by Samuel (Responsa of Meïr b. Baruch of Rothenburg, ed. Bloch, No. 494). Another responsum from Samuel to Moses is found in the manuscript "Yiḥuse Tanna'im wa-Amora'im," whose author is probably Judah b. Kalonymus of Speyer. Whether or not this Moses is identical with  ("Rabbi Moses the Russian"), whom the author of "Sefer ha-Shoham" mentions, is doubtful.

Bibliography:

  * Epstein, Das Talmudische Lexicon, etc., in Monatsschrift, xxxix. 511 (also printed separately);
  * idem, in Monatsschrift, xl. 134.



W. B. L. G.