ELEAZAR LASI BEN JOSEPH:
German Talmudist; born in Berlin Sept. 24, 1740; died at Hamburg Jan. 22, 1814. He studied under Tebele Scheuer, rabbi of Bamberg, and later in the yeshibah of Schwersenz under R. Gedaliah. After his marriage he settled at Posen, where he was appointed dayyan under R. Raphael b. Jekuthiel ha-Kohen. In 1781, after the latter had been appointed rabbi at Altona, Lasi removed there also. He filled for some time the office of dayyan at Wandsbeck, and was appointed "rosh bet-din" of the three communities of Altona, Wandsbeck, and Hamburg. Eleazar Lasi wrote: "Mishnat de Rabbi Eli'ezer," commentary on Shulḥan 'Aruk, Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, the first part of which was published by his son Moses (Altona, 1815); a similar commentary on Eben ha-'Ezer; the anonymous "Ḳonṭres," a criticism of Saul Berlin's "Miẓpeh Yoḳte'el." His glosses and novellæ on the Talmud, as well as his commentary on the Pentateuch and a treatise on the benedictions, are still in manuscript.
- Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 461;
- Zedner, Cat. Hebr. Books Brit. Mus. p. 223;
- Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 233;
- Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 125;
- Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, p. 234.
