Elijah ben Baruch (ben Solomon ben Abraham) The Elder
ELIJAH BEN BARUCH (ben Solomon ben Abraham) THE ELDER
ELIJAH BEN BARUCH (ben Solomon ben Abraham ) THE ELDER (d. before 1712), Karaite author. Elijah lived at first in Constantinople but is included by Simḥah Isaac *Luẓki among the Karaite writers of the Crimea. Elijah subsequently visited Ereẓ Israel, and is therefore referred to as "Yerushalmi." While in Jerusalem he copied the polemic by Salmon b. Jeroham against *Saadiah Gaon, as well as the polemical tract of Sahl b. Maẓliaḥ. Elijah inserted his own comments, strongly critical of the *Rabbanites in general and Saadiah Gaon in particular. Elijah's writings, mainly polemical, include (1) Asarah Ma'amarot, his major work, on the differences between the Rabbanites and the Karaites; (2) Iggeret ha-Vikku'ah, in four parts, not extant (mentioned in Luẓki's Oraḥ Ẓaddikim); (3) Yalkut, a collection of 61 essays by Karaite and Rabbanite scholars, with commentary; (4) Sippurei Massa'ot, a description of his journey from the Crimea to Ereẓ Israel; (5) Zeror ha-Mor, a commentary on Judah Gibbor's Minḥat Yehudah. None of his works was published.
bibliography:
A. Geiger, in: Oẓar Neḥmad, 4 (1863), 18; A.B. Gottlober, Bikkoret le-Toledot ha-Kara'im (1865), 159; S. Pinsker, in: Likkutei Kadmoniyyot (1860), 25, 27, 43; S. Poznański, Karaite Literary Opponents of Sa'adiah Gaon (1908), 86, no. 45; Mann, Texts, 2 (1935), 1426–27.