Reception of His Story
This fanciful narrative was accepted by his contemporaries as true. Its origins are to be found in the haggadic literature, of which Eldad must have had a very extensive knowledge. The inhabitants of Kairwan were troubled by the differences between his halakhot and those of the Talmud, and by some strange Hebrew expressions used by him; but the gaon Ẓemaḥ ben Hayyim of Sura, whose opinion they had asked, soothed them by saying that there was nothing astonishing in the four tribes disagreeing with the Talmud on some halakic points. Moreover, Eldad's personality, asserted the gaon, was known to him through Isaac ben Mar and R. Simḥah, with whom the Danite associated while he was in Babylonia. Hisdai ibn Shaprut cites Eldad in his letter to the king of the Khazars, and Eldad's halakot were used by both Rabbinites and Karaites as weapons in defense of their respective creeds. Talmudic authorities like Rashi, Abraham ben David (RABaD), and Abraham ben Maimon quote Eldad as an unquestioned authority; and lexicographers and grammarians interpret some Hebrew words according to the meaning given them in Eldad's phraseology.
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