Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol

Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol was a German rabbi of the eleventh century. He was a pupil of his cousin R. Simon ha-Gadol of Mainz and of R. Gershom Me'or ha-Golah. David Conforte, relying on the statement in the tosefta to Shab. 54b, says that Eliezer ha-Gadol was the teacher of Rashi;^[1] but Rashi himself, in citing Eliezer, does not say so.^[2] In Rashi's quotation he is sometimes called Eliezer ha-Gadol and sometimes Eliezer Gaon, which induced Azulai to consider them as two separate persons.^[3] According to Menahem di Lonsano^[4] Eliezer ha-Gadol was the author of the well-known Orḥot Ḥayyim or Ẓawwa'at R. Eliezer ha-Gadol, generally attributed to Eliezer b. Hyrcanus. As to the authorship of the seliḥah Elohai Basser 'Ammeka, recited in the service of Yom Kippur Katan and attributed to Eliezer by Michael,^[5] see Landshuth, 'Ammude ha-'Abodah, p. 20.

Footnotes

1. David Conforte, Ḳore ha-Dorot, p. 8a
2. Pes. 76b
3. Chaim Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, p. 12a
4. Menahem di Lonsano, Shete Yadot, p. 122a
5. Heimann Joseph Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, pp. 205-207

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Richard Gottheil and M. Seligsohn (1901–1906). "Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Its bibliography:

• Chaim Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, i. 12a, ii., s.v. ;
• Leopold Zunz, Z. G. pp. 47 et seq.;
• Adolf Jellinek, B. H. iii. 27, 28 of the Preface;
• Samuel Joseph Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 124;
• Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 957-958;
• Julius Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 233.