Simcha of Rome was a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

scholar and

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

who lived in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in the last quarter of the 13th century . He was given an open letter by the community and sent out to find

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

' '' Commentary on the Mishnah'' and bring it back with him. He traveled through

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and

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without meeting with any success. At

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, he applied for assistance to

Solomon ben Adret Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet ( or Solomon son of Abraham son of Aderet) (1235 – 1310) was a medieval rabbi, halakhist, and Talmudist. He is widely known as the Rashba (Hebrew: ), the Hebrew acronym of his title and name: Rabbi Shlomo ben Avrah ...

, who gave him a further letter of recommendation. After a prolonged search, he found in

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the commentary on the first three orders, and shortly afterward the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

original of the commentary on the first five orders. The latter was thereupon translated into Hebrew by several scholars between 1296 and 1298, and Simcha returned with it to Rome, after having encountered various dangers on his journey. He appears to have written some books also, although, with the exception of certain fragments in '' Shibbole ha-Lekhet'', nothing written by him has been preserved.

Sources

Jacobs, Joseph and Schulim Ochser. "Simhah of Rome".
''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

''. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906; citing: :*Vogelstein and Rieger, ''Gesch. der Juden in Rom'', pp. 154, 265. {{authority control 13th-century Italian rabbis Rabbis from Rome