Tobiah Ben Eliezer - Life and Work

Life and Work

As to Tobiah's birthplace, it has been proved by Solomon Buber that he was a native of Kastoria in Greece, as is testified to by Tobiah's countryman Judah Leon Mosconi in his supercommentary on Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch. According to him, the author of the commentary on the Pentateuch mentioned by Ibn Ezra in the preface to his own work was a certain Meïr of Castoria, a pupil of Tobiah b. Eliezer. On the other hand, in his commentary on Ecclesiastes, Tobiah mentions a R. Samson as his teacher; and Buber supposes that he may be identical with the Samson quoted by Rashi in his commentary on Isa. lviii. 14 and Amos vi. 3. It is also to be concluded from various dates given by Tobiah in the course of his work that he wrote it in 1097 and revised it in 1107 or 1108.

Tobiah himself entitled his work "Leḳaḥ Ṭov" in allusion to his name Tobiah; and it is so cited by the earlier rabbis, e.g., Ibn Ezra (l.c.), Asheri in Hilkot Tefillin, Zedekiah ben Abraham in Shibbole ha-Leḳeṭ (§ 118), and many others. Since the middle of the 16th century, however, it has been most often referred to as Pesiḳta Zuṭarta (= "the Lesser Pesiḳta") in distinction to the Pesiḳta Rabbati (= "the Greater Pesiḳta"). This second title was because the editors of the part relating to Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (Venice, 1546), found no title in the manuscript, but noted that every verse was headed פס "pisḳa", and took it for granted that it was entitled Pesiḳta. Consequently the rimed title which, Zunz (l.c.) thinks, was composed by the press-corrector Johanan Treves begins פסיקתא זוטרתא או רבתא ("Pesiḳta, be it small or great").

In the colophon the editors call it "Pesiḳta Zuṭarta." It was owing to the latter title that the "Leḳaḥ Ṭov" was confused with the Pesiḳta Rabbati by Gedaliah ibn Yaḥya (Shalshelet ha-Ḳabbalah, p. 24b, Amsterdam, 1697), by J. Heilprin (Seder ha-Dorot, i.), by Azariah dei Rossi (Me'or 'Enayim, ch. xix.), and by others. The Leḳaḥ Ṭov is in reality half commentary and half aggadah, covering the whole Pentateuch and the Five Megillot. Every weekly lesson is introduced by a Biblical verse containing the word "ṭob." Moreover, in the text he very often says, "I, Tobiah b. Eliezer" or "Tobiah said." It is true that in the Jerusalem manuscript there occurs very often the expression "our teacher Tobiah b. Eliezer," from which it might be assumed that the Leḳaḥ Ṭov was written by Tobiah's pupils; but from a closer examination of the text, and to judge from the Florence manuscript, it is evident that the expression in question is merely a copyist's mistake.