Rabbi Meir ben Shimon ha-Meili of Narbonne רבי מאיר בן שמעון המעילי מנרבונה
authority of Narbonne who recorded his disputation with the archbishop
The thirteenth century demanded a new skill of Jewish teachers: not only to take apart a sugya but to answer aloud before those who held power. Rabbi Meir ben Shimon of Narbonne could do it.
His Milchemet Mitzvah is not an abstract work. It records conversations with the archbishop of Narbonne and with the town authorities: about what the Tanakh says, about taxes and about lending at interest. And it is notable that in the same book he writes sharply about his own—about those who lent at an immoderate rate: he answers the charge from outside, but does not hide the trouble within.
He wrote this in the same years in which the Talmud was burned in Paris: the charges he answers in Narbonne are the very ones on which the books were burned in 1242. From his record one sees what was said from that side and what was answered from this.
He was an authority in law as well: his Sefer ha-Meorot treats the tractates by Provençal custom, and through it one sees what was taught in Narbonne between the Baal ha-Eshkol and the Meiri.
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- Milchemet Mitzvah of Rabbi Meir ben Shimon — his own record of the disputation and the examination
- Sefer ha-Meorot—his treatment of the tractates — the Provençal custom in law
Basis: documents and evidence.