Andi Ziegelman  

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

                                         Chateau at Dampierre, France 

Ashkenazis of today are now found through DNA testing to have come from 350 Jews who lived 600 to 800 years ago.  That takes us back between 1214 and 1414.  There was a bottleneck that caused the European population to be down to such a low number.  My Goldfoot line descended from Halpern ancestors, many who lived in Worms, Germany.  From Rabbi Werthheimer to Rashi to King David, our genes traveled back to Judah.  Though Goldfoot is of Q1b1a haplotype, we have intermarried with Jews of other haplogroups, such as the Cohen line of J1c3d and E1's and a few others common in European Jews.  The Familyfinder test from FTDNA is an autosomal DNA test that matches chromosomes, and this led to the finding of being connected to the Rabbi of Worms, actually several of the rabbis living there, who were connected to RASHI.  

Below is the work from our Halpern leader through Family Tree DNA, Andi Ziegelman who said,  

    "We both descend from this guy below." :: Andi Ziegelman.

ISAAC BEN SAMUEL HA-ZAḲEN of Dampierre:  

French tosafist and Biblical commentator; flourished at Ramerupt and Dampierre in the twelfth century. He died, according to Grätz ("Gesch." vi. 210), about 1200; according to Gross ("Gallia Judaica," p. 161, and "R. E. J." vii. 76), between 1185 and 1195; and as he is known to have reached an advanced age, Gross supposes that he was not born later than 1115. On the other hand, Michael ("Or ha-Ḥayyim," p. 512) says that as Isaac b. Samuel was spoken of as "the sainted master" ("Sefer ha-Terumah," §§ 131, 161; Tos., Zeb. 12b, 59b), a term generally given to martyrs, he may have been killed at the same time as his son Elhanan (1184). 

On his father's side Isaac was a grandson of R. Simḥah of Vitry, author of the Maḥzor Vitry; on his mother's side he was a nephew of R. Tam, of Rashbam, and of Isaac b. Meïr (RiBaM), a great-grandson of Rashi, and a relative of R. Eleazar of Worms. He was surnamed "ha-Zaḳen" (the elder) to distinguish him from another tosafist of the same name, Isaac b. Abraham, surnamed "ha-Baḥur" (the younger). He is often quoted as R. Isaac of Dampierre ("Maimuniyyot," Ma'akalot Asurot, No. 5; "Shibbole ha-Leḳeṭ" ii., No. 40), but it seems that he lived first at Ramerupt, where his maternal grandfather resided ("Sefer ha-Nayyar," p. 162; "Maimuniyyot," l.c.). It was also at Ramerupt that he studied under his uncle R. Tam (Luria, Responsa, No. 29); after the latter had gone to Troyes, Isaac b. Samuel directed his school. Isaac settled at Dampierre later, and founded there a flourishing and well-attended school ("Or Zarua',"i. 126). It is said that he had sixty pupils, each of whom, besides being generally well grounded in Talmud, knew an entire treatise by heart, so that the whole Talmud was stored in the memories of his pupils (Menahem, "Ẓedah la-Derek," Introduction). As he lived under Philip Augustus, at whose hands the Jews suffered much, Isaac prohibited the buying of confiscated Jewish property, and ordered that any so bought be restored to its original owner. A particular interest attaches to one of his responsa, in which he relies on the oral testimony of his aunt, the wife of R. Isaac b. Meïr, and on that of the wife of, R. Eleazar of Worms, a great-granddaughter of Rashi ("Sefer ha-Nayyar," p. 167a).

Isaac's tosafot completed the commentary of Rashi on the Talmud (Romm of Wilna included in his edition of the Talmud Isaac ben Samuel's tosafot on Ḳiddushin). He also compiled and edited with great erudition all the preceding explanations to Rashi's commentary. His first collection was entitled "Tosefot Yeshanim," which, however, was afterward revised and developed. He is quoted on almost every page of the Tosafot, and in various works, especially in the "Sefer ha-Terumah" of his pupil Baruch b. Isaac of Worms, and in the "Or Zaṙua'" of Isaac b. Moses.

 Isaac is mentioned as a Biblical commentator by Judah b. Eliezer ("Minḥat Yehudah," p. 8b), who quotes also a work of Isaac's entitled "Yalḳuṭe Midrash" (ib. p. 22a); by Isaac ha-Levi; by Hezekiah b. Manoah in his "Ḥazzeḳuni"; and in two other commentaries (see "Kerem Ḥemed," vii. 68). Isaac b. Samuel is supposed to be the author also of several liturgical poems, of a piyyuṭ to the Hafṭarah (Landshuth, "'Ammude ha-'Abodah," p. 108), and of a piyyuṭ for Purim (Maḥzor Vitry, No. 255; comp. Luzzatto in Berliner's "Magazin," v. 27, Hebr. part). The authorship of these piyyuṭim may, however, belong to the liturgical writer Isaac b. Samuel of Narbonne.

From the New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, I find that Isaac, also known as Rabbi  Isaac ha-Zaken who was born before 1115 and died after 1184 was a French tosaphist.  He succeeded his uncle, Rabbenu Tam, as head of the Ramerupt yeshivah and later settled at Dampierre.  His tosaphot (critical and explanatory notes on the Talmud by French and German scholars of the 12th to 14th centuries) are quoted by his pupils, while his responsa are scattered through many contemporary works.  

His commentary on the Pentateuch has not survived. The tosaphots were initially supplementary to Rashi's Talmud commentary, which they frequently criticize and modify.  The tosaphists soon developed a new independent mode of Talmud study.  They also investigated in detail the form and content of the talmudic discussions and demonstrated that these too contained implicitly a considerable body of law which they proceeded to render explicit.  

Isaac was interested in mysticism and was in touch with the kabbalists of southern France.  His scholarly son, Elhanan, was martyred in his lifetime and died in 1184.  .  

From Andi:  See below all the rabbis that studied under R. Isaac ben Samuel of Dampierre, in Isaac's school.

 I don't have time now to check, but if I remember correctly, all these students of Isaac's went on to lead synagogues in their home towns of France. Each synagogue had to have nine more men in addition to the rabbi. At the time these students lived, there were also Jews in Germany and Italy and a few in Poland.

Our Halpern ancestors wrote (I don't know where – in their books I guess) that because life was so hard from 1200-1500, they didn't have a family tree for that period. So maybe in the 1100's there were more Jews in Europe than in the 1400's. I don't know.

 Have you ever read the entries in the online JewishEncyclopedia for FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, POLAND? They are very informative.

 Best, Andi

Bibliography: