A cold wind swept through the Jewish section of Regensburg Germany. Inside the tiny dilapidated homes families slept peacefully snug and warm. Only a handful of the most elite Torah scholars the pride and joy of the Jewish community were learning at this early hour of the morning.
Oblivious to the wind and sleet blasting through the flimsy door of the shul these giants of Torah sat together and learned with fiery passion. Their voices echoed around the empty shul their arguments forming the holy opinions that would eventually be recorded inside the Gemara itself.
Indeed some of these angels among men were the lofty Baalei Tosafos the scholars who contributed to the Tosafos on the side of every page of Gemara. Among these men sat Rav Eliezer ben Yehudah one of the future Baalei Tosafos.
Rav Eliezer did not realize that today would mark a very important day in his life. In just a few moments he would embark on an incredible and dangerous journey. He sat among the group his body frozen from the cold but his mind ablaze with the wisdom he studied from the tattered scrolls on his lap.
