Elijah Ben Benjamin Ha-Levi

Turkish rabbi; flourished in Constantinople in the sixteenth century. He succeeded one of his teachers, Elijah Mizraḥi, as rabbi in Constantinople (1526). Elijah made the first collection of prayers for the Maḥzor Romania (editio princeps, Constantinople, 1510), to which he added many poems of his own. He wrote: "Tanna debe Eliyahu," containing 451 responsa, of which only a part have been published, under the title " Zeḳan Aharon" (Constantinople, 1734); "Ma'amar Kol Dai," an asmakta, published in Benjamin Motal's "Tummat Yesharim" (Venice, 1622); "Liwyat Ḥen," "Me Zahab," "Shebeṭ Musar," "Tokaḥat Megullah," still unpublished; and a collection of poems. Berliner ascribes to him a commentary which accompanies various. piyyuṭim in the Maḥzor Romania.

Bibliography:

  * Benjamin Motal, Introduction to Zeḳan Aharon;
  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 933;
  * Zunz, Literaturgesch. pp. 388 et seq.;
  * Berliner, Aus Meiner Bibliothek, pp. 3 et seq.



L. G. H. B.