אליהו מפריז

Elijah of Paris, Rabbi Eliyahu of Paris (אליהו מפריז), known as well as Rabbi Eliyahu HaTzarfati and as Rabbeinu HaTishbi, was a rishon of the twelfth century and one of the earliest of the Baalei Tosafot in France. Paris was his home, and he taught Torah there in the days of Rabbeinu Tam and the Rashbam. His father was Rabbi Yehudah and his son was Rabbi Meir.

In Paris he worked alongside Rabbi Yom Tov bar Yehudah, son of the Rivan, and the two may have sat together as dayanim on the beit din of Paris. In his later years Rabbeinu Chaim Kohen, a talmid of Rabbeinu Tam, was living in Paris, and Rabbi Eliyahu used to turn to him to learn what Rabbeinu Tam held. Among his own talmidim were Rabbi Moshe ben Avraham of Pontoise and, in all likelihood, the Ritzba, Rabbi Yitzchak ben Avraham of Dampierre, who became one of the gedolim of the following generation.

He was known for his piety and his knowledge of kabbalah; an old account tells how he summoned the spirit of a young man who had passed away suddenly, so that the father could say his last words to him. The Raavan called him “alufi u’meyudai,” my companion and my familiar friend, in the words of Tehillim 55:14, and Rabbi Meshullam of Melun wrote of him that in Israel there is no man like him in humility and in fear of sin.

His peirushim and teshuvot are brought in the Tosafot to many masechtot, and also in Machzor Vitry, the Sefer HaIttur, the Sefer Yereim, the Sefer HaRokeach, the Sefer HaManhig, the Sefer HaRaavan, the Raavyah, the teshuvot of the Maharam of Rothenburg, and the Mordechai. Besides his psakim and teshuvot in halacha and pilpul, he also composed piyyutim.

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