EPHRAIM B. NATHAN:

By: Louis Ginzberg

German Talmudist of the thirteenth century; died before 1293. He was a pupil of Simḥah of Speyer and of Isaac b. Moses of Vienna. Under the latter he probably studied at the same time as did Meïr b. Baruch, as the names of both appear together as signatures to a responsum on an important communal question. Ephraim was the teacher of Mordecai b. Hillel, who refers to him simply as "my teacher Rabbi Ephraim." Mordecai often cites the halakic writings of Ephraim, which are sometimes called , sometimes . The exact nature of these writings is difficult to determine. To judge from Mordecai's quotations,however, they would seem to have extended over the whole Talmud, and to have contained explanations, as well as rules for religious practise. Ephraim also wrote a seliḥah for the Minḥah of the Day of Atonement, in which the initial words of its strophes form an acrostic of fourteen words.

L. G.