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Eleazar ben Ahwai (Ahbai)

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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Probably identical, according to Bacher ("Ag. Tan." 2:553), with Eleazar b. Mahbai or Maḥbai, a tanna of the second century, contemporary of Judah b. Bathyra and Aḥa I. (Tosef., Yeb. 14:4). He is cited but twice under this name. His most important remark is with regard to the Pentateuchal expression ("saying"; literally, "to say"), which frequently follows the statement, "God spake to Moses," and which he explains as implying that God spake to Moses not in Moses' interest, but in that of Israel: He spake to Moses to say to the people (Sifra, Wayiḳra, 2:13; compare Yalḳ., Lev. 431, where the patronymic is "Dehabai").