There was, in the first place, a large collection of "Novelties" (_Chiddushim_), or Notes on the Talmud, by various authorities. More significant, however, were the "Responses" (_Teshuboth_), which resembled those of the Gaonim referred to in an earlier chapter. The Rabbinical Correspondence, in the form of Responses to Questions sent from far and near, covered the whole field of secular and religious knowledge. The style of these "Responses" was at first simple, terse, and full of actuality. The most famous representatives of this form of literature after the Gaonim were both of the thirteenth century, Solomon, the son of Adereth, in Spain, and Meir of Rothenburg in Germany. Solomon, the son of Adereth, of Barcelona, was a man whose moral earnestness, mild yet firm disposition, profound erudition, and tolerant character, won for him a supreme place in Jewish life for half a century. Meir of Rothenburg was a poet and martyr as well as a profound scholar. He passed many years in prison rather than yield to the rapacious demands of the local government for a ransom, which Meir's friends would willingly have paid. As a specimen of Meir's poetry, the following verses are taken from a dirge composed by him in 1285, when copies of the Pentateuch were publicly committed to the flames. The "Law" is addressed in the second person: Dismay hath seized upon my soul; how then Can food be sweet to me? When, O thou Law! I have beheld base men Destroying thee? Ah! sweet 'twould be unto mine eyes alway Waters of tears to pour, To sob and drench thy sacred robes, till they Could hold no more. But lo! my tears are dried, when, fast outpoured, They down my cheeks are shed, Scorched by the fire within, because thy Lord Hath turned and sped. Yea, I am desolate and sore bereft, Lo! a forsaken one, Like a sole beacon on a mountain left, A tower alone. I hear the voice of singers now no more, Silence their song hath bound, For broken are the strings on harps of yore, Viols of sweet sound. I am astonied that the day's fair light Yet shineth brilliantly On all things; but is ever dark as night To me and thee. * * * * * Even as when thy Rock afflicted thee, He will assuage thy woe, And turn again the tribes' captivity, And raise the low. Yet shalt thou wear thy scarlet raiment choice, And sound the timbrels high, And glad amid the dancers shalt rejoice, With joyful cry. My heart shall be uplifted on the day Thy Rock shall be thy light, When he shall make thy gloom to pass away, Thy darkness bright.