JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

printed under the title Or la-Yesharim (1785, reprinted 1942).
His novellae on Beẓah were published in Jerusalem in 1960,
and further manuscripts exist. Eidlitz appreciated the value of
secular sciences, considering them necessary for both scholars
and layman but inferior to the Torah. He therefore wrote
a textbook on mathematics, in Hebrew and Yiddish on facing
pages, entitled Melekhet Maḥashevet, of which only the first
part appeared (Prague, 1785; the Hebrew section was reprinted
in Zolkiew (Zholkva), 1837 and 1845, and an abridged Yiddish
version in Warsaw, 1837). Some of his responsa were printed
in works by his contemporaries. Jacob *Emden listed Eidlitz
among those suspected of *Shabbateanism.
Bibliography: Zinberg, Sifrut, 4 (1958), 173, 201; Klemperer,
in: HJ, 13 (1951), 65f.; Ḥiddushei R. Zeraḥ Eidlitz al Massekhet-Beẓah
(1960), 1–2, 7–20; I. Ta-Shema, in: Ha-Sefer, 9 (1961/62), 47; Literaturblatt
des Orients, 9 (1848), 140, 524–7; Bers, in: YIVO-Bleter, 19 (January–June
1942), 69–79 (on Melekhet Maḥashevet).
EIFMAN, BORIS (1946– ), Russian choreographer. He was
born in Rubtzovsk, Siberia, where his parents were exiled before
WW II and returned to Kishivev in the 1950s. At an early
age Eifman showed a keen interest in ballet and dreamed of
becoming a choreographer. He went to Leningrad where he
was admitted to the ballet faculty of the conservatory. An autodidact,
without taking any professional theater directing
courses nor performing as a dancer, he became one of the
world’s prominent choreographers of his time. His first step as
a choreographer was made in 1970 with his ballet Gayane, to
the music of Kachaturian, performed in the Musorgsky Theater
in Leningrad; this was a great achievement for a beginning
choreographer. In 1997, he founded the theater of modern
choreography named after him: the Boris Eifman Ballet
Theater, which was extraordinary for Russia at that time. His
theater’s unusual repertoire included over 40 productions
comprising tragedy, comedy, biblical story, fairy tales, and
philosophical and psychological works. His theater became a
laboratory where he experimented with different approaches
and elaborated his own unique style, which combined modern
art achievements and features of the classical school tradition.
In Eifman’s theater, the corps de ballet holds a place
of pride and plays a role comparable to soloists. Turning to
Russian literature he created in 1980 the ballet The Idiot based
on Dostoyevsky’s novel and set to the music of Tchaikovsky’s
6th symphony. This performance played a very significant
role in the cultural life of Russia. Another significant event
was his ballet Tchaikovsky where Eifman used movement to
penetrate the inner world of the musical genius. In 1990, he
created Don Quixote, based on the original music of Mincus,
and its original interpretations. The performance resulted in
a political manifest, his creativity turned against totalitarian
rule. In 1995 he returned to Dostoyevsky and created the ballet
The Karamozovs, full of lust. A peak of his creativity is the
ballet Giselle, based on the magical life the Russian dancer
Olga Spessivtseva. Here, Eifman achieved the supreme blend
of dance styles from classical to character dancing to expres-
Eilberg, amy
sionist movements. After his visit to Israel in 1997 he created
a ballet My Jerusalem, based on Mozart’s requiem. One of his
most impressive works dedicated to the perverse Russian history
is Russian Hamlet based on the sad life of Tzar Pavel I, the
son of the great Yekaterina, set to the music of Beethoven and
Mahler. Many of his productions were televised. Boris Eifman
was a philosopher and a very sensitive person, concerned with
contemporary problems. Among his numerous awards are the
People’s Artist Award (1995), National Prize of Russia (1995),
Theater Prize (1996 and 1997), Golden Mask Prize (1996 and
1999), the prestigious prize of Peace and Consent (1998), and
the chevalier of Arts in France (1999).
[Yossi Tavor (2nd ed.)]
EIG, ALEXANDER (1895–1938), botanist. Born in Minsk,
Belorussia, Eig was taken to Palestine at the age of 14. During
World War I he volunteered for the Jewish Legion, and after
the war devoted himself to the study of botany, specializing
in the vegetation of Palestine. He worked for some years as
a traveling librarian, and on his travels acquired a rich and
varied collection of plants and grasses which he classified.
From 1926 to 1929, at the invitation of Otto Warburg, Eig
headed the department of botany of the Agricultural Experimental
Station, which was transferred in 1929 to the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. Eig began investigating the geobotany
of Palestine, and in 1931 published the first table of phytogeographic
regions and the first phytogeographical map
of the country. During the same period he also compiled,
with the help of his colleagues, the first Hebrew catalog of the
flora of Palestine. From 1931 to 1933, he traveled in Syria, Turkey,
and Iraq doing further research. In addition to his scientific
work at the Hebrew University, he continued to interest
himself in general botanical research and published descriptions
of many new species of plants. In 1937 he was appointed
lecturer in botany at the Hebrew University and devoted much
of his time to the development of its botany department. His
collection of plants served as a basis for the department’s herbarium.
His important works include A Contribution to the
Knowledge of the Flora of Palestine (1926), The Vegetation of
Palestine (1927), Les elements et les groupes phytogeographiques
dans la flore palestinienne (2 vols., 1931–32), and The Vegetation
of the Light Soils Belt of the Coastal Plain of Palestine
(1939).
Bibliography: M. Zohary, in: Palestine Journal of Botany,
Jerusalem Series, 1 (1938), 114–24, includes list of his publications.
EILAT, port and resort town at the southern extremity of
Israel on the Red Sea coast. Eilat is the modern spelling for
the biblical *Elath, under which heading the town and its history
are described.
EILBERG, AMY (1954– ), first woman to be ordained as a
Conservative rabbi and admitted into the Rabbinical Assembly,
the international association of Conservative/Masorti
rabbis. Eilberg was the daughter of a prominent Philadelphia
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 253