Samson ben Samuel
14th-century rabbi
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Samson ben Samuel of Jerusalem (שמשון בן שמואל איש ירושלים), also called Samson ben Samuel of Düren (מדורין) was born c. 1330 in Düren, Germany.[1] He is known as the author of Kitzur Mordechai, an abridgement of Mordechai ben Hillel's work (not to be confused with the Mordechai Katan of Samuel ben Aaron Schlettstadt),[2] and the Yeriot Izzim, a description of the 613 commandments in rhyming verse. According to Elhanan Reiner, the Yeriot Izzim was composed c. 1350 in Jerusalem.[3] According to Shammai Rubin, the Kitzur Mordechai was completed c. 1382.[4] The Yeriot Izzim includes explanatory glosses, though Reiner and Ephraim Kupfer dispute whether Samson himself is the author.[5][3]
Only his Yeriot Izzim has been fully printed, in Venice, 1597.[6] The Kitzur Mordechai on Yoma was published by Israel Peles in 1992,[7] and the Kitzur Mordechai on Rosh Hashanah was published by Shammai Rubin in 2022.[8]