Background
The Rashba was born in Barcelona, Crown of Aragon, in 1235.
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Salomo Aderet
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He is widely known as the Rashba (Hebrew: רשב״א), the Hebrew acronym of his title and name: Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet. He became a successful banker and leader of Spanish Jewry of his time. He served as rabbi of the Main Synagogue of Barcelona for 50 years.
His teachers were the Ramban and Rabbeinu Yona.
Among his numerous students were the Ritva and Rabbeinu Behaye. The Rashba was considered an outstanding rabbinic authority, and more than 3,000 of his responsa are known to be extant.
Questions were addressed to him from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, and even from Asia Minor. His responsa, which cover the entire gamut of Jewish life, are concise and widely quoted by halakhic authorities.
The Rashba"s responsa also illustrate his opposition to messianism and prophetic pretensions as a general phenomenon, with examples against Nissim ben Abraham and Abraham Abulafia.
On July 26, 1305, the Rashba wrote:
"In that city are those who write iniquity about the Torah and if there would be a heretic writing books, they should be burnt as if they were the book of sorcerers.".
