Biography
Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was a tanna, counted among the principal disciples of his teacher Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai. Pirkei Avot records that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai had five outstanding students, and Rabbi Eliezer stands among them, marking him as one of the central figures whose teachings shaped the Mishnaic tradition.
His name appears in halachic discussion in the Gemara, where a case is brought concerning his son Hyrcanus, who went out on Shabbat with a cloth upon his shoulder — a matter examined before the Sages regarding the laws of carrying on Shabbat, and later cited in the ruling brought in Shabbat 147a. Through such records he is woven into the give-and-take of the early generations of tannaim.
Where traditions differ. The birth and death dates given in the structured facts (c. 100–200 CE) sit uneasily with his being a disciple of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai and teacher of Rabbi Akiva.
רבי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בֶּן הוֹרְקָנוֹס היה מגדולי התנאים בדור השני, בתקופת חורבן בית שני ולאחריו, ומבכירי תלמידיו של רבן יוחנן בן זכאי, אשר כינה אותו "בור סוּד שאינו מאבד טיפה" בשל יכולות הלימוד שלו. היה עמיתו וגיסו של רבן גמליאל דיבנה ובר הפלוגתא של רבי יהושע בן חנניה. ישב בעיר לוד ועמד בראש ישיבה ובית דין בה.
Eliezer ben Hurcanus was one of the most prominent Judean Tannaim of 1st- and 2nd-century Judaism, a disciple of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai according to the Pirkei Avot 2:8 and Avot of Rabbi Natan 6:3 and 14.5, and a colleague of Gamaliel II and Joshua ben Hananiah according to Bava Batra 10b. He is the fifth most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah.
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