ר׳ מנחם בן אהרן אבן זרח

ר׳ מנחם בן אהרן אבן זרח (c.1310–1385) was a Navarrese and Castilian rabbi whose life was repeatedly reshaped by persecution and civil war. His father, a refugee from the French expulsion of 1306, settled at Estella in Navarre. During the anti-Jewish massacre there in March 1328, ר׳ מנחם’s parents and four younger brothers were killed; he survived severe wounds through the intervention of a Christian knight. He studied for two years under ר׳ יהושע אבן שועיב, continued at Alcalá with ר׳ יוסף אבן אל־עיש, and received his most extensive talmudic formation from ר׳ יהודה בן הרא״ש. In 1361 he succeeded his teacher as rabbi of Alcalá and taught there for eight years. Civil war destroyed his property in 1368, forcing him to Toledo, where ר׳ שמואל אברבנאל supported his scholarship. For that patron he wrote צדה לדרך, a distinctive practical code aimed especially at wealthy Jews active at royal courts, presenting essential law in a concise and accessible form. He died in Toledo in July 1385.