Rabbi Jacob HaGozer, also Rabbi Ya'akov HaGozeir and other transliterations, was an early 13th century German Rabbi and mohel.[1] He was the nephew of Rabbi Ephraim of Bonn, and he authored a work on the laws of brit milah (circumcision). That volume was published, together with his son Gershom's work of a similar nature, in 1892 under the title Zikhron Berit LaRishonim, a play on words (it is both a paraphrase of Leviticus 26:45 and literally means 'A remembrance of the brit of the Rishonim'). According to the Encyclopedia Talmudit, R' Gershom's work is the original source of the Jewish custom of refusing a convert three times before accepting him.[2]
