Eleazar B. Menahem

Palestinian scholar of the fourth amoraic generation (fourth century). No halakot and but few haggadot are connected with his name. Commenting on the Biblical expression (Ps. xxxvi. 9 [A. V. 8]). "Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures" (, lit. "thy Edens"), he remarks, "Since the Bible says not 'thy Eden,' but 'thy Edens,' it implies that every pious soul has an [apartment in] Eden for itself" (Tan., Emor, ed. Buber, 9; Lev. R. xxvii. 1; Midr. Teh. xxxiv. 23 reads "Isaac b. Menahem"). From the expression (Gen. xiii. 3), "He [Abraham] went on his journeys," Eleazar infers that Abraham returned from Egypt by the way he had traveled thither, to liquidate the debts he had previously incurred (Gen. R. xli. 3).

Bibliography:

  * Bacher, Ag. Pal. Amor. iii. 697;
  * Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, ii., s.v.



S. S. S. M.