Rabbi Yitzchak ben Yehuda רבי יצחק בן יהודה
head of the Mainz academy, Rashi's teacher
Rabbi Yitzchak ben Yehuda headed the academy of Mainz in the second half of the eleventh century—the one Rabbeinu Gershom had founded. Rashi studied under him after Worms and cites him dozens of times.
His responsa entered the collections of early Ashkenazi rulings, and through Rashi the foundation of all later Ashkenazi halakhah. He himself left little in writing: that generation taught aloud, and almost everything reaches us through students. All the more reason to see this step: between Rabbeinu Gershom and Rashi stand living men, not a void.
The sources give no exact years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman and the lists of Seder haDorot.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Rashi, Commentary on the Talmud, passim — the «my teacher» citations of the head of Mainz
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Shem ha-Gedolim of Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai — the compendium of the authors of sefarim: who wrote a book and what is known of him
Basis: documents and evidence.