The Rashbam

Shmuel ben Meir (Rashbam), whose name is an acronym for Rabbi Shmuel Ben Meir, lived in northern France in the 12th century and was the grandson of Rashi through his daughter Miriam. A towering biblical and Talmudic commentator, Rashbam is best known for his pursuit of the peshat—the plain, contextual meaning of Scripture—which sometimes led him to interpretations that departed from rabbinic tradition. He established himself as a leading scholar of the Tosafist movement, the school of Franco-German Talmudists who engaged in critical dialectic (pilpul) with the text and with Rashi's own glosses. Rashbam lived through the First Crusade era and was deeply engaged in both textual study and the spiritual life of his community. His biblical commentaries remain influential for their linguistic precision and literary sensitivity, and his Talmudic work shaped the intellectual culture of medieval European Jewry.