Eliezer ben Samuel Ha-Levi

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ELIEZER BEN SAMUEL HA-LEVI

ELIEZER BEN SAMUEL HA-LEVI (d. 1357), German Jew, son of Samuel b. Yakar, the ḥazzan of Mayence (also known as Tov Elem). Eliezer, who was not a rabbi, but was titled *ḥaver, is known from his ethical will, which is preserved in several manuscripts and first published in 1870 in a German translation (ed. by A. Berliner in Juedische Presse, 1 (1870), 90f., 99). The Hebrew original was afterward published by M. Guedemann (Guedemann, Quellenschr, 295–8) and again, along with an English translation by I. Abrahams (Hebrew Ethical Wills, 2 (1926), 1207–18). In this touching document Eliezer requests that his children walk in God's ways, that they fulfill strictly all the mitzvot, that they be not mercenary, and if possible, live among Jews.

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Eliezer ben Samuel Ha-Levi

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