Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer - (THE CHAPTERS OF RABBI ELIEZER THE GREAT) ACCORDING TO THE TEXT OF THE MANUSCRIPT BELONGING TO ABRAHAM EPSTEIN OF VIENNA

Gerald Friedlander

Varda Books, 2008

1916

644 páginas

21h 28m

ISBN-10: 1590459946

The name of the writer of the book is unknown. The putative author is Rabbi Eliezer, son of Hyrkanos, who lived in the latter half of the first century c.e. and in the first decades of the second century. He was famous on account of his great erudition, but in spite of his reputation as a scholar he was ultimately excommunicated. Was it on account of this very fact that the actual writer of our book deliberately selected the name of this famous master in Israel as its supposed author? In many respects the book is polemical and unorthodox — polemical in opposing doctrines and traditions current in certain circles in former times, unorthodox in revealing certain mysteries which were reputed to have been taught in the school of Rabban Jochanan ben Zakkai, the teacher of our Rabbi Eliezer.
Did our author deem it dangerous to expose his own identity? Did he not run the risk of being placed under the ban for the daring displayed in writing his book ? What name was more honoured, in spite of the excommunication which had made it so prominent, than Rabbi EUezer the Great, who is quoted in Mishnah and Talmud more frequently than any one of his contemporaries?
The book enjoyed considerable popularity in Jewish circles in former days, for there are more than two dozen editions. There is also a Latin version with an elaborate commentary by Vorstius (1644), indicating a certain interest in the book even in non-Jewish circles. The first edition was printed in Constantinople in 1514, the second edition appeared in Venice, 1544, the third edition was published in Sabbioneta in 1567. Later editions of value are those of Amsterdam and Prague. The folio edition of Rabbi David Luria (Vilna, 1837) is the best extant. His critical commentary is a mine of valuable information which has been constantly laid under contribution in the preparation of the notes in the present volume. The editions of Erode and Einhorn have also been consulted.