ר׳ מרדכי בן הלל הכהן

ר׳ מרדכי בן הלל הכהן (c.1250–1298), conventionally called “the Mordechai,” was a leading late Tosafist and Ashkenazi halakhic compiler. He descended from the scholarly family of ר׳ אליעזר בן יואל הלוי and was related to ר׳ אשר בן יחיאל. His principal teacher was ר׳ מאיר בן ברוך מרוטנבורג; he also learned from ר׳ פרץ בן אליהו מקורביל and other German and French authorities. Rather than writing a concise independent code, he gathered rulings, responsa, communal customs, and Tosafist discussions around the order of the Talmud, frequently preserving material otherwise lost. Around 1291 he lived at Goslar, where a bitter legal challenge to his right of residence was decided in his favour. He then settled in Nuremberg. On 1 August 1298, during the Rintfleisch persecutions, he, his wife Selda, and their five children were murdered with the city’s Jewish community. His ספר המרדכי survived in significantly different Rhenish and Austrian recensions and became one of the most authoritative Ashkenazi sources used by later decisors. It was printed alongside the Talmud and profoundly influenced ר׳ משה איסרליש and the European reception of שולחן ערוך. No authenticated portrait survives.