ABIATHAR BEN ELIJAH HA-KOHEN
- ABIATHAR BEN ELIJAH HA-KOHEN
- ABIATHAR BEN ELIJAH HA-KOHEN (C. 1040–1110), last of the
Palestinian geonim. Abiathar studied under his father
ELIJAH B. SOLOMON, president of the Palestinian academy,
from 1062 to
1083. A responsum of Elijah addressed to Meshullam b. Moses of Mainz in
1070 was signed also by Abiathar under the title
"ha-Revi'i" ("the Fourth") implying that he was fourth
in rank at the yeshivah. With the capture of Jerusalem by the
Seljuks in 1071 and the transfer of the academy to Tyre, Abiathar
was appointed "the Third," and later vice president of the academy
(av ha-yeshivah). In 1081, while his father was still
alive, he was appointed gaon. Abiathar was involved in
a long and bitter controversy with David b. Daniel, the Egyptian
exilarch and president of the Fostat (Cairo) Academy, who sought
to extend his authority (as had his father daniel b. azariah
) over the Palestinian academy and community. Abiathar described
this controversy in a "Scroll," published as "Megillat
Abiathar" by S. Schechter (JQR 1901/02), in
which he gave an account of his family's battle against the
would-be usurpers. He forcefully defended the special rights of
Ereẓ Israel over the Diaspora. "Ereẓ Israel is not called exile;
how, then, can an exilarch wield authority over it?" At the
beginning of the First Crusade (c. 1095), Abiathar was in Tripoli
(Syria). Nothing is known about his last years.
-BIBLIOGRAPHY:
W. Bacher, in: JQR, 15 (1902/03), 79–96; Mann, Egypt, 1
(1920), 187–95; A. Kahane, Sifrut ha-Historya ha-Yisre'elit,
1 (1922), 160–2; Marcus, in: Horeb, 6 (1941), 27–40; S. Assaf
and L. Meir (eds.), Sefer ha-Yishuv, 2 (1944), 39–40
(introd.); S. Goitein, in: KS, 31 (1955/56), 368–70;
Braslavi-Braslavsky, in: Eretz Israel, 6 (1960), 168–73 (Heb.
sect.); idem, in: Tarbiz, 32 (1962/63), 174–9.
(Simha Assaf)
Encyclopedia Judaica.
1971.
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