Nahum Eliezer Ben Jacob

Rabbi of the second half of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century; born about 1660; diedabout 1746; pupil of R. Jacob Striemer. He was one of the leading rabbis of his time, and held the rabbinate of Adrianople, in which city he also directed a yeshibah having numerous pupils. At an advanced age he went to Jerusalem, where he was elected chief rabbi and officiated for about ten years. There he devoted himself to the study of the Law, wrote legal decisions and responsa, and disputed, even in his last days, on learned questions with Rabbis Isaac Zerahiah Azulai and Meïr Mizraḥi of Jerusalem.

Nahum was the author of the following works, of which only the first has been printed: "Ḥazon Naḥum" (Constantinople, 1745), commentary on the mishnaic orders Ḳodashim and Ṭohorot; commentaries on the order Zera'im, on Sifre, and on Sifra, the last being entitled "Midrash Eli'ezer"; "Otiyyot Eli'ezer," critical notes to many passages in the Talmud, in the works of Maimonides, and in the Ṭurim of Jacob b. Asher; "Mi-Lebad 'Olat," notes to the "'Iṭṭur," and responsa; and "Ḳab we-Naḳi."

Bibliography:

  * Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, s.v.;
  * Fürst, Bibl. Jud. iii. 11;
  * Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, p. 32, No. 625; p. 172, No. 207;
  * Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, No. 434.



E. C. J. Z. L.