ELIEZER OF TOUQUES

ELIEZER OF TOUQUES (d. before 1291), one of the last tosafists and editors of tosafist literature. Only a few details of his biography are known. He was a nephew of hezekiah of Magdeburg and appears to be identical with the Eliezer b. Solomon who signed a well-known responsum on the question of whether the Ḥerem ha-Yishuv applied to the community of goslar . He studied under isaac b. moses (Or Zaru'a) and was the teacher of Ḥayyim Paltiel . Eliezer's contemporaries had the highest regard for him, considering him an equal of meir b. baruch of Rothenburg. isaac joshua b. immanuel de lattes looked upon him as "head of the yeshivah of France," a post later attributed to perez b. elijah of Corbeil. The tosafot of Eliezer of Touques are primarily an adaptation of those of samson b. abraham of Sens, with the addition of later novellae. He sometimes adapted the tosafot of other scholars, among them judah b. isaac Sir Leon. The disciples of Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg used Eliezer's tosafot extensively, and it was through them that they became the accepted tosafot of France and Germany. Consequently the publishers of the Talmud also made an effort to include them, in order to enhance the value of their publication. The tosafot to the tractates Shabbat, Pesaḥim, Ketubbot, Gittin, Bava Kamma, Bava Meẓia, Bava Batra, Shevu'ot, and Ḥullin in the printed editions of the Talmud, and possibly also of some other tractates, were edited by Eliezer. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Urbach, Tosafot, index. (Israel Moses Ta-Shma)