The Chida cites R' Chaim Vital regarding a remarkable episode involving the father of the Rosh, Rabbeinu Yechiel, and the miraculous salvation of the Rosh (1250-1327).
Six months after Rabbeinu Yechiel passed away, he came back to life from Gan Eden. On Friday night at midnight, he appeared to his wife, not in a dream, but in a vivid, tangible encounter. He told his wife to flee the city with their children warning that tomorrow they will kill all the Jews in this place. He explained that although similar decrees had been enacted in surrounding regions, but we davened and the tefillah was accepted; only this city remained under threat. Listening to his warning, they fled that very Friday night. Through this extraordinary intervention, the life of Rabbeinu Yechiel’s illustrious son, the Rosh, was saved.
Shem HaGedolim, Maareches Alef, Rabbeinu Eliezer Bar Nosson, s.v. vda she’matzasi. The Rosh had eight sons. He studied under the Maharam of Rothenburg and authored one of the earliest codifications of halacha. In 1286, King Rudolf I put a new persecution of the Jews, and his rebbe, R' Meir of Rothenberg, left Germany but was captured and imprisoned. The Rosh raised a ransom for his release, but R' Meir refused it, because of fear of encouraging the imprisonment of other Rabbanim. Subsequently, the Rosh assumed Rabbi Meir's position in Worms.
