Eleazar ben Judah of Worms

Eleazar ben Judah of Worms

 orig. Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymos

(born 1160, Mainz, Franconia—died 1238, Worms) German Jewish mystic and Talmudic scholar. His wife and daughters were killed by Crusaders in 1196, but he nevertheless continued to teach a doctrine of love of humanity. After studying with Judah ben Samuel, to whom he was related, he became a rabbi at Worms (1201). Eleazar attempted to unify the mysticism of the Kabbala with the Talmud. His greatest work was his ethical code, Rokeah (1505). He believed that God himself was unknowable but that the kavod, a ruling angel that was an emanation from God, was knowable. His writings are a major source of information on medieval Hasidism.