ELEAZAR (ELIEZER) B. ENOCH:
A scholarly contemporary of 'Aḳabia b. Mahalalel and Gamaliel II. According to the statement of Judahb. 'Illai, it was this Eleazar, and not 'Aḳabia, who was excommunicated by the Sanhedrin for the reason that he quibbled about the rabbinic regulations concerning "cleansing of hands" ('Eduy. v. 6). Nothing more is known of him; but the fact of his being cited in connection with 'Aḳabia, and the explicit declaration of the transgression which prompted the august tribunal to excommunicate him, evidence his prominence in his day. Probably because of excommunication, in which state he ended his earthly existence (ib.), none of his doctrines was discussed in the academies or recorded in rabbinic literature.
Bibliography:
- Meiri, Introduction to Abot, ed. Stern, 11b;
- Mendelsohn, in Rev. Et. Juives, xli. 39 et seq.
