Yechiel of Paris


Yechiel ben Joseph of Paris and Vivus Meldensis was a major Talmudic scholar and Tosafist from northern France, father-in-law of Isaac ben Joseph of Corbeil. He was a disciple of Rabbi Judah Messer Leon, and succeeded him in 1225 as head of the Yeshiva of Paris, which then boasted some 300 students; his best known student was Meir of Rothenburg. He is the author of many Tosafot.

Disputation of Paris

Yechiel of Paris is best known as the main defender of Judaism in the 1240 Disputation of Paris held at the court of Louis IX, where he argued against the convert Nicholas Donin. This was the first formal Christian-Jewish disputation held in medieval Christendom. In defence of accusations of slanderous quotes in the Talmud against the founder of Christianity, Yechiel argued that the references to Yeshu in fact refer to different individuals. Yechiel delineates them as Jesus himself, executed for sorcery, another "Yeshu haNotzri", also from Nazareth, and a third "Yeshu" of the boiling excrement in b. Gittin 47a. Berger writes: "Whatever one thinks of the sincerity of the multiple Jesus theory, R. Yehiel found a way to neutralize some dangerous rabbinic statements, and yet the essential Ashkenazic evaluation of Jesus remains even in the text of this disputation." Yechiel's argument was followed by Nachmanides at the Disputation of Barcelona in 1263, but not by Profiat Duran at the Disputation of Tortosa in 1413–14.
Although the disputants were believed by at least some to have successfully defended Judaism, a decree was passed for the public burning of all available manuscripts of the Talmud—and on Friday, June 17, 1244, twenty-four carriage loads of written works were set alight.

Arrival in Acre

Around 1258, Yechiel arrived in Outremer and settled in Acre, then ruled by the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, along with his son, Messire Delicieux and a large group of followers. He soon re-established the Great Academy of Paris and is believed to have died there between 1265 and 1268. He was buried near Haifa, at Mount Carmel. Others however maintain he never emigrated and died in France, where a fragment of a funeral stone has been found bearing the inscription,
מורנו
י)יחיאל)
לגן עד
which could be from Rabbi Yechiel.

Teachings

He was a tosafist. His tosafot are quoted as authoritative by Peretz ben Elijah in "Kol Bo" and in "Mordechai". He is frequently quoted also in the edited tosafot.