Damesek Eliezer

The author was a descendent of the greatest Chasidei Ashkenaz of Worms - his father was R. Samuel Chasid and he styled himself Ish Tzvi in respect of his grandfather. A contemporary of R. Joel Sirkes (the Ba”CH) with whom he studied in his youth R. Eliezer was vociferously critical of Sirkes’ Halachic rulings (see ff. 88v-89rt). Asserting that because future generations will assuredly rely on his authority due to his masterful commentary on the Arbah Turim, R. Eliezer feels justified in announcing the Ba”CH mistakes. Many copies of this work, which is one of the most thorough on Tractate Chulin, were destroyed in a conflagration that broke out in the printer’s shop. Most surviving copies were subsequently destroyed during the Chmielnicki Massacres of 1648-49. The dire condition of the Jews in Poland following the massacres prompted R. Eliezer to follow his father’s lead and migrate to the Land of Israel. This despite his earlier opposition to the settlement of the Land due to Halachic uncertainties relating to those precepts unique to Eretz Israel (see f.21r). However, he never reached his Promised Land and died in Belgrade while on his way. For a lengthy exposition on the ancestry and importance of R. Eliezer and his place among the greatest scholars of his generation, see C. N. Dembitzer, Kelilath Yofi (1888-93), Vol. II, pp. 84-90