person · P0144
Elisha ben Avuyah אלישע בן אבויה
Tanna of the Yavneh generation who became the tradition's great heretic: one of the four who entered the Pardes, he "cut down the plantings" and left the fold, and is thereafter called only Acher — "the Other." Yet his Torah endured: Rabbi Meir continued to learn from him, eating the inside of the pomegranate and discarding the peel, and a teaching of his still stands in Avot under his own name.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- אלישע בן אבויה
- Also known as
- Acher, Elisha ben Abuyah
- Era
- tannaim
- Generation
- T3
- Students
- Rabbi Meir
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3830–3900 AM
- Academic
- c. 70–140 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈70 years
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Was one of the four who entered the Pardes — Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher, and Rabbi Akiva — and he "cut down the plantings," becoming the heretic known thereafter as Acher.
The list of the four is on 14b; "Acher cut down the plantings" and the account of his turning are on 15a.
|
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| Taught: "One who learns as a child, to what is he compared? To ink written on fresh paper. And one who learns in old age — to ink written on erased paper." | rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| Rabbi Meir continued to learn Torah from him after his apostasy; the sages explained: he found a pomegranate — he ate its inside and threw away its peel. | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| The Bavli reports that Greek song never ceased from his mouth and that books of the minim (heretics) would fall from his lap when he rose in the study hall.
Rabbinic biographical characterization. The research input rendered the second item "Greek books"; the Bavli's phrase is sifrei minin (heretics' books), corrected at ingest.
|
rabbinic tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| He had at least one daughter, who survived him and later came impoverished before Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi to request financial support.
The daughter is unnamed. |
rabbinic tradition | ★★★★★ | |
| A Jerusalem Talmud narrative describes his father Avuyah as one of Jerusalem's prominent men and places Elisha's circumcision celebration among the city's elite.
The account is autobiographical in form but belongs to a later rabbinic narrative.
|
rabbinic tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Traditional placement c. 3830–3900 AM (c. 70–140 CE), inferred from his entry into the Pardes alongside Rabbi Akiva and his role as teacher of Rabbi Meir.
Schematic traditional dating. |
tradition reconstruction | ★☆☆☆☆ |