Meir Lublin or Meir ben Gedalia (1558 – 1616) was a Polish rabbi, Talmudist and Posek ("decisor of Jewish law"). He is well known for his commentary on the Talmud, Meir Einai Chachamim. He is also referred to as Maharam (Hebrew acronym: "Our Teacher, Rabbi Meir"). Biography Maharam was born in Lublin, Poland. He was descended from a family of rabbis, and his father, Gedaliah, was an eminent Talmudist. His principal teacher was his father-in-law, Isaac ha-Kohen Shapiro, rabbi of Kraków. Maharam's knowledge of the Talmud and Poskim was such that he was invited to the rabbinate of Kraków in 1587, when he was not yet thirty years old. In 1591 he became rabbi at Lemberg. (In Lemberg he was engaged in a controversy with Rabbi Joshua Falk concerning a bill of divorce.) In 1613 he became rabbi at Lublin and established a yeshiva. He was well known in the role of Rosh Yeshiva there, owing to his renown as a Talmudic scholar. Many of his students became prominent rabbis or heads of yeshivot; his most famous student is probably Isaiah Horowitz (Shelah HaKodesh). A daughter of the Maharam was married to Benjamin Beinisch Gelernter, whose parents were Rabbi Zachariah Mendel Gelernter and the daughter of the Maharal of Prague. While the Maharam served as Dayan and Rabbi in Lemberg a dispute broke out between him and Rabbi Joshua Falk (known as the Sema) regarding a bill of divorce. The controversy turned out ugly and the Maharam offended the honor of rabbi Joshua Falk. Rabbi Abraham Shrenzel, a student of Joshua Falk and an influential scholar, thus avenged the honor of his rabbi and the Maharam was forced to leave the city by order of the local government. R' Meir was a sharp polemicist and critical of the people around him, and did not refrain from criticizing the most respected scholars of his generation, including the Rema, Beis Yosef, Maharsha, Maharshal. He even disagreed with the Rishonim when he felt that they have erred. He was forceful in rejecting opinions of his own "without any doubt, and there is no way of settling [the issue] in any other way." When the Maharsha's commentary to the Talmud was first printed, he dismissed it and wrote, "from what I wrote you can see that he can't find his hands and feet in the house of learning, and it is an error." Only