JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

eliezer ben nathan of mainz
doubtful whether *Asher b. Jehiel was a descendant of his.
When the latter refers to zekeni ha-Rabban, the quotations
are mainly from the Ravyah of *Eliezer b. Joel ha-Levi. Raban’s
contemporaries in France and Germany recognized his
authority, and they addressed him in terms of great respect.
Indeed Raban was in contact with all the major Jewish communities
of his time. In 1150, together with Jacob b. Meir *Tam
and *Samuel b. Meir, he drew up the famous Takkanot Troyes
(the Troyes Ordinances).
His great work (Sefer ha-Raban) which he called Even ha-
Ezer (“Stone of Help”) is the first complete book that has survived
emanating from German Jewry. It contains responsa and
various extracts and halakhic rulings following the order of
the talmudic tractates. The book appears to have come down
exactly as Eliezer wrote it (but cf. Sefer ha-Raban, p. 106a),
although there is no logical continuity from one section to
the next and there are a number of omissions. The section
numbers are by Eliezer himself, who used them for internal
reference purposes, but in the printed editions they are deleted
from §385 onward. The book contains expositions of talmudic
topics and commentaries on customs, liturgical passages,
including the Kaddish, as well as interpretations of various
Midrashim and of chapter 31 of Proverbs, together with
correspondence with over 20 rabbinical authorities of the
day.
The book contributes much to knowledge of the way of
life of the Jews of France and Germany in the 12th century and
is a mine of information on the state of scholarship and religious
practice in France, Germany, and Babylonia. The book
functioned as a bridge between the world of the Talmud and
the daily life of the Jew. Even ha-Ezer was a conduit for the
Western dissemination of geonic literature and ideas. It is also
a major source of early German customs. Special mention
should be made of Eliezer’s considerable use of the talmudic
commentary of *Hananel b. Ḥushi’el (“Rabbenu Hananel”;
often without mention of the source) only about 50 years after
it appeared. Most likely Hananel’s commentaries came to
him from the Arukh of *Nathan b. Jehiel of Rome whom he
also quotes. The citations from Hananel are rendered more
accurately by Eliezer than by other early authorities. Eliezer
is also the first to cite the anonymous Sefer ha-Mikẓo’ot. The
Wolfenbuttel manuscript of Even ha-Ezer contains a sharply
worded anti-Christian polemic that is based on chapter 30
of Proverbs. This is the first known polemic to emerge from
medieval Germany.
There is some confusion with regard to the book Ẓafnat
Pa’ne’aḥ (“Revealer of Secrets”), which the early authorities
cite frequently, and which they attribute to Eliezer. The fact
that many of the quotations appear in the Even ha-Ezer indicates
that it may have been known by two names. Another
opinion is that the reference is to a shorter edition of the
book, while still another view is that there was an entirely different
book, from which the copyists added to the Sefer ha-
Raban that has been preserved. Another book ascribed to
Eliezer, Even ha-Roshah, which is in manuscript, is merely a
compilation from “Hilkhot Dinin” in the Sefer ha-Raban (pp.
92ff.), corresponding in all respects with a similar compilation
printed in the *Kol Bo. Sefer ha-Raban was first published
in Prague (1610) and subsequently (only as far as tractate
Niddah) by S. Albeck, who added a long introduction in
Warsaw (1905). Part of it was published in Jerusalem (1915) by
Leib Raskes, and the entire work was published by Solomon
S. Ehrenreich (Simleul-Silvaniei, 1927), who wrote an extensive
commentary to it.
Eliezer was the first commentator on piyyut in Germany.
Part of his commentaries are preserved in manuscript, of
which only fragments have been printed, often interspersed
with selections from the commentaries of other early authorities
in maḥzorim published in Ostrog (1810, 1817 et al.) and
Slawita (Maḥzor Korban Aharon, 1826, et al.). An old manuscript,
given to the editors by Ephraim Zalman Margaliot,
served as the basis for this printing. Another incomplete manuscript
was in the possession of Solomon Zalman *Halberstam
(Kehillat Shelomo, Vienna, 1890). Eliezer’s commentary
encompassed the entire maḥzor, the complete siddur for Sabbaths
and weekdays, the Haggadah, and Pirkei Avot (“Ethics
of the Fathers”). He has mistakenly been credited with the authorship
of the anonymous Ma’amar Haskel (Cremona, 1557), a
commentary on his own piyyut El Elohim ha-Shem Dibber. The
commentary was actually written more than 100 years after his
time. It is also doubtful whether he is the author of the commentary
on the kinah of Kallir, Eikhah Yashevah Ḥavaẓẓelet
ha-Sharon, published by J.H. Schorr (see bibl.). Of Eliezer’s
piyyutim, some have been printed and others are extant only in
manuscript. The horrors of the First Crusade form the theme
of some of his piyyutim. He also devoted a special booklet to
this subject, Kuntres Gezerot “Tatnu” (“Booklet on the Massacres
of 1096,” publ. Leipzig, 1854; publ. in English translation
by Eidelberg, 1986). His commentary on Avot (also included
in the above-mentioned manuscript owned by Margaliot), was
in the possession of Jehiel Michael Moravchik, who made use
of it “from the manuscript of the RaBaN written in 1145” in
his own commentary on Avot (Minḥah Ḥadashah, Cracow,
1576). A didactic poem by Eliezer on the laws of sheḥitah was
published in Sefer ha-Yovel le-Rav Shimon Skop (Vilna, 1936).
In Sefer ha-Roke’aḥ (§319) he is credited with having written
a book on customs.
Bibliography: S. Albeck (ed.), Sefer Raban (1904), 3–27
(introd.); Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 364–5; V. Aptowitzer, Mavo le-
Sefer Ravyah (1938), 49–57; Urbach, Tosafot, 148–58; idem (ed.),
Sefer Arugat ha-Bosem, 4 (1963), 24–39; A.M. Habermann, Gezerot
Ashkenaz ve-Ẓarefat (1945), 72–82; Levine, in: Tarbiz, 29 (1959/60),
162–75; Baron, 4 (1957), 287–8; K. Schilling (ed.), Monumenta Judaica-
Handbuch (1963), 674, 676. Add. Bibliography: D. Ackerman,
in: WCJS, 11, C1 (1994), 57–64; idem, in: Proceedings of the Rabbinical
Assembly, 55 (1994), 94–104; A. Shapiro, “Jewish Life in Germany of
the 12th century: A Study of Eben ha-Ezer of Rabbi Eliezer bar Nathan
of Mayence as a Source for the History of the Period,” dissertation,
Dropsie College (1968); S. Eidelberg, The Jews and the Crusaders
(1996).
[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]
328 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6