Riva—Rabbi Yitzchak ben Asher ha-Levi of Speyer ריב"א — רבי יצחק בן אשר הלוי משפיירא
Rashi's student, with whom the German Tosafot begin
The Tosafot are usually counted from Rashi's grandsons, and for France that is right. But in the German lands the count begins earlier and with another man: Rabbi Yitzchak ben Asher ha-Levi, called Riva for short, and—to distinguish him from a grandson of the same name—Riva the Elder.
He was from Speyer, one of the three Rhineland towns that carried Ashkenazi learning, and he went to study in Troyes with Rashi. He came home with the finished commentary in hand—and with questions on it. That is how this school works: not to correct the teacher, but to ask him in a way that makes the answer deeper than the question. The yeshiva Riva opened in Speyer became the first German school of Tosafot; his words are quoted by the French Tosafists and by the Or Zarua a century later.
Traditions about his end differ, and we do not retell them as knowledge. What is firm is this: before him Germany learned the Talmud through Rashi, and after him it argued with Rashi by the rules he had set.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- The Tosafot, where his words are cited — the name, the generation, and that he studied under Rashi
- Or Zarua of Rabbi Yitzchak of Vienna — his rulings, transmitted through the Rhineland school
Basis: documents and evidence.