SAMUEL BEN NATRONAI

SAMUEL BEN NATRONAI (between 1100 and 1110–before 1175), German scholar. Samuel was the brother-in-law and teacher of joel b. isaac ha-levi and married the daughter of eliezer b. nathan some time before 1133. His birthplace and the names of his teachers are unknown, but it is known that he studied in Regensburg and that on various occasions he was in Bonn, Mainz, and Cologne. Many of his teachings, which are conspicuous for the sharpness of his style, are contained in the Sefer Raban (Prague, 1610) of his father-in-law and in the Sefer Ravyah of eliezer b. joel ha-Levi of Bonn, the son of his brother-in-law. His rulings were highly regarded by the great scholars of the time. Samuel is known to have written tosafot to several tractates, and a book of his halakhic decisions is quoted by the rishonim; he also wrote a seliḥah for the Day of Atonement that has survived. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: V. Aptowitzer, Mavo le-Sefer Ravyah (1938), 69–75; Urbach, Tosafot, index. (Israel Moses Ta-Shma)