Eleazar (Eliezer) Ha-Ḳappar

Tanna of the fourth generation (second century); father of Bar Ḳappara, who is sometimes cited by the same name. Eleazar is quoted in the Mishnah (Ab. iv. 21), where he says, "Envy, lust, and ambition shorten man's life." From him the Mishnah (ib. 22) also preserves the following exhortation: "The born are to die, and the dead to revive, and the living to be judged; in order to know, and to notify, and that it may be known, that He is the Framer, and He the Creator, and He the Judge, and He the Witness, and He the Complainant, and He with whom there is no iniquity, nor forgetfulness, nor respect of persons, nor taking of a bribe, for all is His, is about to judge; and know that all is according to His plan. Let not thy 'yeẓer' [evil inclinations] assure thee that the grave is an asylum; for perforce thou wast created (Jer. xviii. 6), and perforce thou wast born, and perforce thou livest, and perforcethou diest, and perforce thou art about to give account and reckoning before the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He!" Elsewhere (Sifre, Num. 42; compare Num. R. xi. 7) he says, "Great indeed is peace: it is the end of all blessings" (see Num. vi. 26). For other ethical lessons from him see Ab. R. N. xxix. 4; Derek Ereẓ Zuṭa ix. 1. Some of his teachings are probably to be ascribed to his son.

Bibliography:

  * Bacher, Ag. Tan. ii. 500;
  * Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, ii., s.v.;
  * C. Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, 2d ed., pp. 76 et seq.



S. S. S. M.