Works
It was due to his father's influence that he developed a literary activity of a far more scientific character than was usually found at that age or in that country. Especially interested in the history of the old homiletical literature, he edited the Midrash Agadat Bereshit with a number of other mostly pseudepigraphic works of similar character (Vilna, 1802), adding valuable notes. In the preface of this edition he makes the first known attempt to give a complete history of the midrashic literature. A plagiarist, Jacob ben Naphtali Herz of Brody, reprinted this edition with the preface (Zolkiev, 1804), but was careful to omit the name of Elijah Gaon wherever the son had mentioned him. He omitted, also, on the title-page the mention of Abraham of Vilna's edition, referring only to the one which had been printed in Venice in 1618.
This introduction was only part of his greater work, Rav Po'alim (Of Many Works, published by Simon Chones, Warsaw, 1894). This book is an alphabetical index of all midrashim known to the author. It seems that Abraham of Vilna believed literally in the statement that the eighty concubines of King Solomon (Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah 6:8) meant eighty midrashim. This is at least testified to by Samuel Luria in a letter to Simon Chones (Rab Po'alim, p. 9). The book, however, contains over one hundred and twenty midrashic works. While Abraham of Vilna shows greater interest in literature and literary questions than is found among his contemporaries, he has no idea of the meaning of literary criticism. He ascribes the Zohar to Shimon bar Yochai, in spite of the many proofs against its authenticity produced by various writers since the time of Abraham Zacuto. He makes, however, the admission that the book was preserved for several generations by oral tradition. So he considered the Pirke R. Eliezer (a Midrash written about the middle of the ninth century) to be written by R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus about 100 CE. The book is a very valuable one (even after Leopold Zunz has treated the same subject in his methodical manner), because the author has collected many valuable references from rabbinical literature.
Read more about this topic: Abraham Ben Elijah Of Vilna
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