Isaac ben Samuel the Elder (c. 1115 – c. 1184), also known as the Ri ha-Zaken (Hebrew: ר"י הזקן), was a French tosafist and Biblical commentator.
[2] It was also at Ramerupt that he studied under his uncle Rabbeinu Tam[3] after the latter had gone to Troyes, Isaac b. Samuel directed his school.
[5] 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.
On the other hand, Michael[9] says that as Isaac b. Samuel was spoken of as "the sainted master"[10] a term generally given to martyrs, he may have been killed at the same time as his son Elhanan (1184).
[15] The authorship of these piyyuṭim may, however, belong to the liturgical writer Isaac ben Samuel of Narbonne.