Through his mother he was a great-grandson of
Rashi and through his father he was a grandson of
Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry. He was surnamed "ha-Zaḳen" (the elder) to distinguish him from another tosafist of the same name,
Isaac ben Abraham surnamed "ha-Baḥur" (the younger). He is often quoted as R. Isaac of Dampierre. but it seems that he lived first at
Ramerupt, where his maternal grandfather resided. It was also at Ramerupt that he studied under his uncle
Rabbeinu Tam after the latter had gone to
Troyes, Isaac b. Samuel directed his school. Isaac settled at Dampierre later, and founded there a flourishing and well-attended school. It is said that he had sixty pupils, each of whom, besides being generally well grounded in
Talmud, knew an entire treatise by heart, so that the whole Talmud was stored in the memories of his pupils. 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. A particular interest attaches to one of his responsa, in which he relies on the oral testimony of his aunt, the wife of R. Isaac b. Meïr, and on that of the wife of R.
Eleazar of Worms, a great-granddaughter of Rashi. He died, according to
Heinrich Graetz about 1200; according to
Henri Gross between 1185 and 1195; and as he is known to have reached an advanced age, Gross supposes that he was not born later than 1115. On the other hand, Michael says that as Isaac b. Samuel was spoken of as "the sainted master" a term generally given to
martyrs, he may have been killed at the same time as his son Elhanan (1184). == Tosafot ==