ELIEZER THE CAPER MAKER

I am not exactly certain why, but the story of one particular Rabbi who lived at the end of the second Century CE seems to have captured my imagination.  His name was Rabbi Eliezer the Caper Maker.  I was reminded of him recently after my visit to the Gilabun Canyon in the Golan when I was inspired to buy a wonderful new book on the ancient synagogues of the Golan published by Yad Ben Zvi.  The book is written in Hebrew so I thought I would pass on  few comments on one of my favorite Rabbis of the second century who's name comes up prominently in one of the chapters

On the northern bank of the Gilabun Canyon sits the ruins of a Syrian village - called Daburya on the Syrian maps.  The village was abandoned during the Six Day War.  The bedouin tribe that lived there fled when the fighting broke out. All that is left at present is the odd wall still standing and building stones strewn all over the landscape.  But when the Archeologist Shemaryahu Gutman arrived here to poke around in 1968 he made some astounding discoveries. Built into the doorway of what appeared to be the former mosque of the village, he found a lintel there with a Hebrew inscription.  It seems the bedouin who built the buildings used the carved stones they found scattered in the area that dated back to a Jewish village from the second Century CE.

Carved onto the lintel and appearing on either side of the inscription were two hawks or vultures holding snakes in their beaks.  The inscription read "This is the study hall of Eliezer the Kapar." After referring to Jewish sources professor Guttman found that Eliezer Hakapar was a well documented contemporary of Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi the head of the Sanhedrin (Jewish Supreme court).  Both lived during a time of reconciliation with the Romans and resignation to tolerating Roman control and taxes.  Eliezer Hakapar was known to make statements such as "Peace is a great priority  - the last blessing in the Hebrew silent prayer is devoted to peace and the last word in the Priestly blessing is peace."

He was also recognized for being personally humble and having said, "Don't be like the upper lintel in an elevated doorway, that is too high for anyone to touch, and don't be like the low hanging lintel in the cramped doorway that people bang their foreheads against, and don't be like the medium height threshold that people bump their legs against.  Instead, be like the smooth stone at the base of low threshold that everyone steps on on their way into the house. Even if an earthquake should destroy the whole house that stone will remain in place and not be moved."

Is it possible that our humble Rabbi Eliezer Hakapar was assigned the task of moving up to the Golan during the Roman period to preach about living in peace with the Romans and establishing a center of Jewish learning up in the outer reaches of Jewish habitation.  Perhaps his own humility and love of peace were the motivations that allowed him to leave the centers of learning in Beit Shearim and Tzipori and establish himself in what seems to be an out of the way backwater village in the Golan.

Another question that comes up is the title given to the Rabbi - the Caper Maker.  Apparently this title is a reference to the way Rabbi Eliezer earned his livelihood.  One of the plants that is very common Israel and in the middle east in General is the Tzalaf.  This is the same bush you see growing out of the rocks of the Western Wall.  The bud of the flower of the Tzalf is collected and marinated even today for use in food preparation.  It is called the Caper.  In ancient times they would similarly process the fruit of the Tzalaf or Caper bush and sell it for use in the kitchen. The Greeks called them Kapparis. Apparently Rabbi Eleizer made his living by processing these unusual fruits and selling them in the markets.  Thus he was known as Eliezer Hakapar with the word Kapar stemming from the Greek name for the fruit of the Tzalaf.

“Photo © Shmuel Browns, used with permission” http://israel-tourguide.info/2013/06/19/flora-of-israel-caper/

Apparently Rabbi Eliezer not only moved north to establish Educational institutions he also managed to support himself in the process and did not rely upon the funds of the community to support him.

One other detail caught my attention in the course of my reading.  The author speculates about the original Jewish name for the village of Debura.  In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses makes the time to establish 3 cities of refuge on the eastern banks of the Jordan River.  These cities of refuge would be there to assist individuals who killed someone unintentionally.  A system was needed to make sure to avoid family feuding and vendettas that might lead to more murder and perhaps even civil war.  Thus those who the courts deemed to be accidental murderers were restricted to these cities for an indefinite period of time.  Once the tribes conquered the west side of the Jordan river 3 more similar cities were to be established there as well.

One of these cities, the northern most of the three, was called, Golan (Deuteronomy 4:44), The same name we currently give to the entire Golan heights. That in itself begs the question of how the entire Golan Heights came to be called by the name of one city. Well perhaps the answer can be found in an obscure translation of the Bible into the Aramaic language.  Aramaic was the lingua franca of international commerce and education throughout second temple period.  Just as today the Bible has been translated onto many languages such as English in ancient times it was translated in Aramaic.  In one such translation, the name Golan is translated as Dabura.  It is possible that the Rabbis of the period thought that the town they called Dabura (and the Syrians later continued to call Daburya) was identical with the City the Bible called Golan.  This would mean that our Rabbi Eliezer Hakapar established his study hall in what may have been the equivalent of the something like the Capital city in the area.  That would make sense. It may also explain why the entire area came to called the Golan adapting the name given to one of the prominent cities  in the area. and using it to refer to the entire Golan.