R. Yosef Bekhor Shor

R. Yosef ben Yitzchak Bekhor Shor (c. 1140-1190) of Orléans was a leading second-generation Tosafist student of Rabbenu Tam and one of the most original peshat commentators in the Ashkenazi tradition. His Torah commentary is notable for its rationalist tendencies — offering naturalistic explanations of miracles where possible, engaging directly with Christian anti-Jewish polemic (his commentary is one of the richest sources for the Jewish-Christian disputational context of 12th-century France), and freely disagreeing with Rashi where peshat warranted it. He was likely also the Tosafist 'Yosef of Orléans' cited extensively in Tosafot.