As early as the 14th century, Asher ben Jehiel wrote that Rabbeinu Gershom's writings were "such permanent fixtures that they may well have been handed down on Mount Sinai.
Born in Metz in 960, Gershom was a student of Yehuda HaKohen ben Meir (Sir Léontin), who was one of the greatest authorities of his time.
[3] Having lost his first wife, Gershom married a widow named Bonna and settled at Mainz, where he devoted himself to teaching the Talmud.
However, he did apparently rule leniently regarding those who had submitted to baptism to escape persecution, and who afterward returned to the Jewish fold.
His school composed glosses on the text of the Talmud,[4] and wrote commentaries on several treatises of the latter which were very popular and gave an impulse to the production of other works of the kind.
He is the author of Seliha 42 – Zechor Berit Avraham ("Remember the Covenant of Abraham"), a liturgical poem recited by Ashkenazic Jews during the season of Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, which includes the following stanza: The Holy City and its regions are turned to shame and to spoils and all its desirable things are buried and hidden and nothing is left except this Torah.