Eliezer ben Isaac of Worms
ELIEZER BEN ISAAC OF WORMS
ELIEZER BEN ISAAC OF WORMS (also called "Eliezer ha-Gadol "; 11th century), German talmudic scholar. Eliezer was a pupil of his relative Simeon ha-Gadol, in *Mainz, and later of *Gershom Me'or ha-Golah, and *Judah ha-Kohen, author of Sefer ha-Dinim. He was a friend of *Jacob b. Jakar (Rokeaḥ, Ha-Tefillah 21; Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Maẓref le-Ḥokhmah 14:2). After the death of R. Gershom, he and Jacob b. Yakar headed the yeshivah of Mainz, which numbered among its pupils Isaac ha-Levi and *Isaac b. Judah, the teacher of Rashi, who mentions Eliezer several times in his commentaries to the Bible (e.g., Ps. 76:11) and the Talmud (Pes. 76b) calling him "ha-Gadol" or "ha-Ga'on." A number of Eliezer's decisions and instructions have been preserved in works issuing from Rashi's school, including the Sefer ha-Pardes. Menahem b. Judah di Lonzano attributes to Eliezer the well-known work, Orḥot Ḥayyim or Ẓavva'at R. Eli'ezer ha-Gadol, which had previously been attributed to *Eliezer b. Hyrcanus. The suggestion that Eliezer was the father of Tobiah b. Eliezer, author of the Lekah Tov, is without firm foundation. The selihah "Elohai Basser" recited in the Yom Kippur Katan service, which bears Eliezer's name in acrostic form, has been attributed to him.
bibliography:
Guedemann, Gesch Erz, 1 (1880), 120–6; A. Epstein and J. Freimann (eds.), Sefer Ma'aseh ha-Ge'onim (1909), xv; I. Abrahams, Hebrew Ethical Wills, 1 (1926), 31–49; Germ Jud, 1 (1934), 192, no. 13; V. Aptowitzer, Mavo le-Sefer Ravyah (1938), 310f.