1200 CE–1260 CE · Rishonim · Coucy-le-Château
Rabbi Moshe of Coucy (c. 1200–1260), known as the Semag (Sefer Mitzvot Gadol, 'The Great Book of Commandments'), was a prominent French Tosafist and halakhic authority of the thirteenth century. Based in Coucy-le-Château in northern France, he was active during a period of intense Jewish learning in Ashkenaz. The Semag is best remembered for his systematic enumeration and explanation of the 613 mitzvot (commandments), organized by positive and negative precepts, drawing on earlier rabbinic sources and contemporary Tosafist reasoning. His work became influential across medieval Jewish communities and was widely studied alongside other mitzvot-codifications. Moshe was also known for his pietistic inclinations and concern with the spiritual dimensions of halakhah, not merely its technical aspects.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the orchard map →
From Coucy in northern France; a leading tosafist who completed the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol (Semag) in 1247. A renowned preacher, he traveled through Provence and Spain urging stronger religious observance.
Coucy (Coucy-le-Château), a town in northern France (Picardy), was the home of Rabbi Moses of Coucy, a thirteenth-century Tosafist best known as the author of the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol (Semag), an influential code of the 613 commandments completed in 1247. He was also one of the rabbis who defended the Talmud at the 1240 Disputation of Paris.
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Semag’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Semag’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Paris (medieval) · 1250
Comprehensive enumeration and explanation of the 613 commandments organized by Torah portion, with halakhic rulings and sources from Talmud and Rishonim.
Full text not yet available in our corpus.
Coucy-le-Château · 1250
Comprehensive enumeration and explanation of the 613 commandments organized by Torah portion, with halakhic rulings and sources from Talmud and Rishonim.
Full text not yet available in our corpus.
Paris (medieval) · 1243