Biography
Rabbi Elazar HaKappar (his name is also written Eliezer HaKappar) was a tanna of the fifth and last generation, close to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, and the father of Bar Kappara. Several explanations are given for the name HaKappar: that his trade was preparing pitch, called kufra in Aramaic; that he made wine or remedies from the caper plant, then called kappar; or that he came from a village named Kfira.
He appears only once in the Mishnah — the teaching in Avot that kinah, taavah, and kavod remove a man from the world — but he is cited more widely in the Talmud and the midrashim, in halachah and aggadah alike, and in Derech Eretz Zuta he sets out a long ladder of ethical conduct. He loved Eretz Yisrael and he loved peace: he taught that the shuls and batei midrash of Bavel will one day be planted anew in Eretz Yisrael, and that great is shalom, for all the brachot conclude with shalom. And in lighter coin: when wine enters — whose gematria is seventy — the sod, also seventy, comes out.
He is among the very few of Chazal to whom an archaeological find points directly. In Dabbura in the central Golan a carved lintel was found, decorated with two birds of prey holding a wreath in their beaks, bearing the inscription “This is the beit midrash of Rabbi Eliezer HaKappar” — the only find from the era of the Tannaim in which the words beit midrash appear. There is a quiet irony here: he himself taught that a man should not be like the upper lintel, which no hand can reach, but like the low threshold that everyone treads and that remains in place even when the building falls — and it was on a lintel that his name survived. The stone is displayed today in the Golan Archaeological Museum in Katzrin.
His talmid was Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi — according to the Erchei Tannaim VaAmoraim, the elder of two chachamim who carried that name. Around 5384/1624, Rav Gershon ben Eliezer HaLevi Segal recorded in his Igeret HaKodesh the kever of Rabbi Elazar HaKappar and his son Bar Kappara in a cave at Kafra, a ruin that stands today near Karmiel.
Where traditions differ. Some sources identify Rabbi Elazar HaKappar with his son Bar Kappara, who is at times cited by the same name; the grave tradition names them as father and son.
רבי אליעזר הקפר היה תנא שפעל במחצית השנייה של המאה ה-2 לספירה, בדור החמישי והאחרון לתקופת התנאים. הוא היה מקורב לרבי יהודה הנשיא, עורך המשנה. זהותו שנויה במחלוקת בין החוקרים - חלקם מזהים אותו כבר קפרא וחלקם כאביו. הוא נמנה עם החכמים הבודדים בחז"ל שלגביהם נמצאו עדויות ארכאולוגיות ישירות.
Eleazar ha-Kappar was a Jewish rabbi of the fifth and last generation of the tannaim. He was a colleague of Judah ha-Nasi and was in the company of him occasionally. He spent most of his life at ancient Katzrin. He was the father of bar Kappara, who is sometimes cited by the same name. He had a nephew named Hiyya, who was known for his pleasant voice.
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