Eliezer ben-Hyrcanus

(1–2nd century)

   Palestine tanna. The son of a wealthy farmer, Eliezer spent his youth working in his father’s fields. At the age of twenty-two (some say twenty-eight) he decided to go to Jerusalem and devote himself to the study of the Torah. He joined the academy of JOCHANAN BENZAKKAI and proved to be a brilliant student with a phenomenal memory which was likened to ‘a plastered cistern, which loseth not a drop’. Eliezer married Imma Shalom, the sister of the Patriarch GAMALIEL II, with whom he was to have serious disputes.

   During the siege of Jerusalem, Jochanan ben-Zakkai was carried through the Roman lines in a coffin by his two favourite pupils, of whom Eliezer was one. Jochanan demanded a meeting with the Roman general VESPASIAN and persuaded him to let him go, with his pupils. They went to Jabneh and started an academy there. After a while, Eliezer left and settled in Lydda, where he began his own school. He was an extremely conservative teacher, passionately devoted to the early tradition, and opposed to any change. He was excommunicated by the patriarch for stubbornly refusing to accept the majority view on a question of ritual cleanliness.

   When it became known that Eliezer was dying, the sages came to make their peace with him. As Rabbi AKIBA approached his bedside, Eliezer foretold Akiba’s unnatural end (he was later executed by the Romans). After Eliezer’s death, the authority of his decisions was restored, and he took his place as one of the leading tannaim of his day. He was sometimes referred to as Eliezer the Great.