Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol
Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol was a German rabbi of the eleventh century. He was a pupil of his cousin R. Simon ha-Gadol of Mainz and of R. Gershom Me'or ha-Golah. David Conforte, relying on the statement in the tosefta to Shab. 54b, says that Eliezer ha-Gadol was the teacher of Rashi;[1] but Rashi himself, in citing Eliezer, does not say so.[2] In Rashi's quotation he is sometimes called Eliezer ha-Gadol and sometimes Eliezer Gaon, which induced Azulai to consider them as two separate persons.[3]
According to a provenance of a sacred tradition—sometimes presumed to describe the transmission of early medieval Kabbalah from Babylon to Western Europe[4]—with the provenance itself attributed to Eleazar of Worms (13th century)[5], this ‘Eliezer the Great’ or Eliezer Ben Isaac ha-Gadol, of the early 11th century generation of Ashkenazi Hasidim, was an ancestral member of this lineage of teachers ,and a member of the Kalonymids: the Ba’al Shems or Masters of the Name in medieval Germany.[5]
Works
- According to Menahem di Lonsano[6] Eliezer ha-Gadol was the author of the well-known Orḥot Ḥayyim or Ẓawwa'at R. Eliezer ha-Gadol, generally attributed to Eliezer b. Hyrcanus.
- As to the authorship of the seliḥah Elohai Basser 'Ammeka, recited in the service of Yom Kippur Katan and attributed to Eliezer by Michael,[7] see Landshuth, 'Ammude ha-'Abodah, p. 20.
Footnotes
- ↑ David Conforte, Ḳore ha-Dorot, p. 8a
- ↑ Pesachim 76b
- ↑ Chaim Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, p. 12a
- ↑ For example by Gershom Scholem in his chapter on the ‘Hasidim in Germany’ in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941) and throughout his Origins of the Kabbalah (1961).
- 1 2 Re: article “Kalonymus” in 21st century edition of Encyclopedia Judaica. v. 12, Kat-Kz. Two extant copies of the provenance, transcribed by Maharshal (as a relatively brief annotation) and by Jose Delmedigo (as a lengthy, descriptive and presumably complete copy of the list) reflect a common source. This and various other corroborating elements tend to authenticate the document.
- ↑ Menahem di Lonsano, Shete Yadot, p. 122a
- ↑ Michael, Heimann Joseph, (1891) Or ha-Ḥayyim, Frankfort-on-the-Main (in Hebrew), pp. 205-207
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Richard Gottheil and M. Seligsohn (1901–1906). "Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Its bibliography:
- Chaim Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, i. 12a, ii., s.v.;
- Leopold Zunz, Z. G. pp. 47 et seq.;
- Jellinek, Adolf (1853). Bet ha-Midrasch. 3. Jerusalem, 27, 28 of the Preface;
- Fuenn, Samuel Joseph, Keneset Yisrael, p. 124;
- Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 957-958;
- Julius Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 233.