Gershom ben Yehudah

Gershom ben Yehudah (Rabbenu Gershom), was a talmudist and halakhist. One of the first rabbis of Ashkenaz, he founded a yeshiva in Mainz, which became the first European yeshiva to rival the great academies of Babylonia. It produced the leading scholars European Jewry, including Yaakov ben Yakar, the teacher of Rashi. Around the year 1000, Rabbenu Gershom called assembly of rabbis to deal with complex, pressing issues of the day, during which he instituted various laws and bans. These include the prohibition against polygamy, the requirement of a wife to consent to divorce, the requirement to accept any Jew who had been forced to convert to Christianity and wishes to return, and the ban against opening and reading another person's mail. Asher ben Yechiel (Rosh) said about these laws that they became "such permanent fixtures that they are treated as if handed down on Mount Sinai." The title "Ma'or Hagolah" (Light of the Exile) was reverently appended to his name.