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elfenbein, israel
Elephantine papyri, the Jews there, being soldiers, required the
Persian regime’s permission for any change which interfered
with their military duties. As soldiers subject to military discipline,
they were tried by the military authorities at Elephantine
or at Syene. Nevertheless, they enjoyed a large measure
of civilian freedom in everything pertaining to their personal
lives. They led a normal family life, were allowed to transact
business among themselves or with non-Jews, to buy and sell
landed property and houses, and to bequeath these to their
children. As soldiers, however, they received their rations from
the king (Cowley 24), being allotted a monthly ration in grain
(usually barley) and legumes (Cowley 2; Kraeling 11:3ff.) and
payment in silver (Cowley 2:16, 11:6). At Elephantine there
was a “royal storehouse” (Kraeling 3:9, et al.). Accountants
(Cowley 26:4ff.) and scribes (Cowley 2:12, 14) supervised the
disbursement of goods and funds. One administrative document
(Cowley 24) shows:
Men: 22 2 30
Ardab (c. 1 quart): 1 1½ 2½
The monetary system combined the Persian karash (83.3
grams) with the Egyptian shekel (8.76 grams), a half-shekel
agio being added to make 10 shekels equal 1 karash.
It is nonetheless clear that their wealth derived from
commerce. The documents show that the Elephantine Jews
attained a certain degree of wealth and some of them, especially
the civilians, a measure of opulence. They occupied an
intermediate position between a professional soldier living
by his sword and a civilian engaged in a craft, in commerce,
or in cultivating the soil. The same situation obtained in the
Hellenistic period when, for example, the cleruchies were
both soldiers and farmers. The status of the fifth-century Elephantine
Jews can also be compared to that of the Babylonian
Jewish military colony sent at the command of Antiochus
III to Phrygia and Lydia, where the colonists were settled
on the soil and in the cities and constituted a garrison loyal
to the Seleucids, at the same time cultivating the land allotted
to them by the king.
An active civilian life at Elephantine is attested by the
various civilian officials mentioned in the papyri, such as
judges (Cowley 16:4–5, 9), state scribes (אתנידמ ירפס: Cowley
17:1, 6), and others. It is however probable that these officials
were not Jews but Persians or other non-Jews. At the head of
the Elephantine Jewish community was its most prominent
personality, who represented it both internally and externally.
At the end of the fifth century B.C.E. the leader of the community
was Yedonyah b. Gemariah who with his colleagues
sent the famous letter about the temple to Bagoas.
Bibliography: Z. Ben-Ḥayyim in: Eretz Israel, 1 (1951), 135–9;
G. Bohak, “Ethnic Continuity in the Jewish Diaspora in Antiquity,” in:
John R. Bartlett (ed.), Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman Cities, Routledge
(2002); E. Bresciani and M. Kamil, in: Atti della Accademia Nazionale
dei Lincei, ser. 8, vol. 12 (1966), 357–428; U. Cassuto, in Qedem,
1 (1942), 47–52; A.E. Cowley, “Some Egyptian Aramaic Documents,”
in: PSBA (1903), 25: 202–8, 259–63; idem, Aramaic (1923); G.R. Driver,
Aramaic Documents of the Fifth Century BC (1954, 1957); A.S. Hirsch-
berg, in: Ha-Tekufah, 8 (1920), 339–68; W. Kaiser, Elephantine: The Ancient
Town, DAI: 1998; E.G. Kraeling (ed.), Brooklyn Museum Aramaic
Papyri (1953); E.Y. Kutscher, Qedem, 2 (1945), 66–74; E. Meyer, Der
Papyrusfund von Elephantine (1912); B. Porten, Archives from Elephantine:
The Life of an Ancient Jewish Military Colony (1968); idem, “Did
the Ark Stop at Elephantine,” in: BAR (May/June 1995); idem (2003),
“Elephantine and the Bible,” in: L.H. Schiffman (ed.), Semitic Papyrology
in Context (2003), 51–84; S.G. Rosenberg, “The Jewish Temple
at Elephantine,” in: NEA, 67:1 (2004); E. Sachau, Aramaeische Papyrus
und Ostraka aus einerjuedischen Militaer-Kolonie zu Elephantine, 2
vols. (1911); A.H. Sayce and A.E. Cowley (eds.), Aramaic Papyri Discovered
at Assuan (1906); E.L. Sukenik and E.Y. Kutscher, Qedem, 1
(1942), 53–56; C. von Pilgrim “The Town Site of the Island of Elephantine,”
in: Egyptian Archaeology, 10:16–18; R. Yaron, Introduction to the
Law of the Aramaic Papyri (1961); idem, Ha-Mishpat shel Mismekhei
Yev (1961); idem, in JSS, 2 (1957), 33–61; 3 (1958), 1–39.
[Abraham Schalit / Lidia Matassa (2nd ed.)]
ELFENBEIN, ISRAEL (1890–1964), U.S. rabbi and talmudic
scholar. Elfenbein was born in Buczacz, eastern Galicia. He
immigrated to the U.S. in 1906 and in 1915 was ordained at
the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Between 1915
and 1940 Elfenbein was rabbi of congregations in Nashville,
Chicago, and New York. In 1938 he became national executive
director of the Mizrachi Education and Expansion Fund. Elfenbein’s
principal interest in scholarly research was medieval
rabbinic literature. He made many contributions to scholarly
periodicals and annuals. His major work was a collection of
the responsa of Rashi, Teshuvot Rashi (3 vols. in one, 1943).
Other works include Maimonides the Man (1946). Some of his
more popular writings were collected in a volume published
posthumously, American Synagogue as a Leavening Force in
Jewish Life, edited by A. Burstein (1966).
Bibliography: J.L. Maimon (ed.), Sefer Yovel… Yisra’el Elfenbein
(1962), 9–13.
ELFMAN, DANNY (1953– ), U.S. composer-musician. Born
in Amarillo, Texas, to teacher Milton and teacher/writer Blossom
(née Bernstein) Elfman and raised in Los Angeles, Elfman
played violin in public high school and later played the conga
drums and violin with the avant-garde troupe Grand Magic
Circus in France and Belgium. After spending a year touring
West Africa at 18, Elfman returned to Los Angeles in 1971 following
a bout with malaria. His brother, Richard, asked him
to join his multimedia theater ensemble, the Mystic Nights of
the Oingo Boingo, and help score his film The Forbidden Zone
(1980), which starred Elfman as Satan. Elfman taught himself
composition during this time by transcribing the music of jazz
great Duke Ellington. While working on the film, Elfman and
other members formed the new wave group Oingo Boingo in
1979. The group released a string of albums with IRS Records –
Oingo Boingo (1980), Only a Lad (1981), Nothing to Fear (1982),
and Good for Your Soul (1984). Elfman recorded his first solo
album So-Lo in 1984 for MCA. The group scored a Top 40 hit
with the theme to the movie Weird Science (1985). That same
year, the feature film Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure debuted with
314 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6