ELIʿEZER BEN HYRCANUS, also known as Eliʿezer the Great, but usually simply as Rabbi Eliʿezer, was a Jewish sage of the late first and early second centuries CE, the first generation of the tannaitic period. The legends surrounding Eliʿezer's beginnings, although contradictory, are united in seeking to create an aura of greatness. According to the dominant tradition, Eliʿezer, like ʿAqivaʾ ben Yosef, was an adult before he began his studies. Despite this, he was soon found to be "explicating matters that no ear had ever before heard." Elsewhere, Eliʿezer is described as a child prodigy, and those who saw him as a child predicted that he would one day be a great sage. The legends about Eliʿezer convey a close association between him and Yoḥanan ben Zakkʾai, whom Eli...