In Kiddushin daf 34b,Tosafot 4 lines from the bottom, the abbreviation, הר"ם appears and in many other places. I had a hard time finding its meaning. Can you tell me its meaning and why it doesn't appear in some Roshei Teivot seforim? Is there any machlokes about it?
Michael Fscher, Passaic, NJ USA
It stands for the name of one of the Rishonim that Tosafot cites. Tosafot is a work that was written over several generations by scholars, mainly in France and Germany, whose leaders were the descendants of Rashi.
There are different collections of commentaries from which the Tosafot that we possess now on the page of the Gemara were compiled, and Tosafot in different tractates of the Gemara were compiled from different collections.
One of these collections is known as "Tosfos Ivra" and suggestions have been made by contemporary scholars that Tosafot on Masechet Kidushin originates from Tosfos Ivra. There were 3 brothers who compiled Tosfos Ivra. The eldest of these brothers was Rabeinu Moshe b'Rebbi Shneur. He was a pupil of the Rash from Shantz and was a teacher of the Ramban. So if my estimation is correct, הר"ם would stand for הרב משה . Often when one sees the abbreviation הר"ם in the works of the Rishonim it stands for Rabeinu Meir from Rotenburg הרב מאיר מרוטנבורג who was the teacher of the Rosh and the Mordecai. However in this case it probably does not stand for that because R' Meir of Rotenburg lived slightly later.
Shabbat Shalom
Dovid Bloom