Rabbi Menachem ben Zerach רבי מנחם בן זרח

Estella, 5088. On 5–6 March 1328 there was a massacre in Navarrese Estella. His father, mother and four younger brothers were killed. He himself was gravely wounded and survived: a sympathetic knight carried him out.

He studied under Rabbi Joshua ibn Shuaib, then under Rabbi Joseph ibn al-Aish in Alcalá; his principal teacher was Rabbi Judah ben Asher, son of the Rosh, who took him through nearly the whole Talmud.

Tzeidah LaDerech—"Provision for the Road." The book was written in gratitude to Don Samuel Abravanel, who sheltered him when he lost his property in the civil strife. And it was written for a particular reader: for wealthy Jews living at court—those with no time and some embarrassment. Five parts: prayer and rite, permitted food, marriage, Sabbath and festivals, fasts and mourning.

Its mark is that the law is given together with its reason: he held that a man drifting from observance is not held by a list of prohibitions.

He died in Toledo in Tammuz 5145.