GERSCHOM BEN JUDAH (96o–Io4o), French rabbi, was born at Metz. Settling in Mainz in early life, he became the originator of Talmudic studies in France and Germany. About i 000 he called a synod which prohibited polygamy and dis cussed the problems of divorce and of apostasy under compulsion. Gerschom died in Mainz in 1040. Besides his revision of the text of the Mishnah and Talmud, he produced works on Biblical exe gesis, the Masorah and lexicography.