the Week of Proper 18 / Ordinary 23
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Bible Encyclopedias
Tobiah ben Elijah of Vienne (Burgundy)
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or French tosafist of the thirteenth century. He was a younger contemporary, and perhaps also a pupil, of Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre, at whose funeral he was present in 1210. Authors of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries speak of Tobiah as a very prominent teacher of the Law; and he is known also as a Bible commentator and liturgical poet. It seems that he wrote a highly important casuistic work, from which the many decisions quoted in his name were taken. His pupil Abraham ben Ephraim often refers, in his "Sefer ha-Miẓwot," to Tobiah as an authority.
Tobiah is quoted in the Tosafot (B. Ḳ. 69b), several times in "Mordekai," in the "Shibbole ha-Leḳeṭ," and in "Tashbez." His religious poetry, inspired by the persecutions of his coreligionists, consists of "seliḥot," included in a Burgundian Maḥzor. They are impressive in style, and show mastery of form. It appears from a passage in a Cambridge manuscript that Jehiel of Paris visited Tobiah on his journey to Palestine in 1260.
- Zunz, Z. G. p. 56;
- idem, Literaturgesch. p. 303;
- Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 192.
These files are public domain.
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Tobiah ben Elijah of Vienne (Burgundy)'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/t/tobiah-ben-elijah-of-vienne-burgundy.html. 1901.
