Bible Encyclopedias
Me�r ben Isaac of Orleans

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

French liturgical poet and, possibly, Biblical commentator of the end of the eleventh century. Me�r and his son Eleazar are quoted in the commentary to (29:11) wrongly ascribed to Rashi. He composed several piyyu?im, the best known of which are "Torah ha-Temimah" (a supplication interspersed with many Aramaic and Talmudic words and having the general rime in , and in which he expresses his horror of apostasy) and "Almanot ?ayyot," a seli?ah for Yom Kippur. Both piyyu?im are signed and are acrostics containing the name "Eleazar." The second piyyu? was translated into German by Zunz ("S. P." p. 184). There is a seli?ah beginning "Mi yodea' yashub," referring to a massacre of 3,000 Jews by the Crusaders, which, though it is signed and is an acrostic containing the name "Eleazar," is supposed by Zunz to have been composed a century later.