Good Teaching: On Genesis and Exodus

Tuviah ben Eliezer

Lekaḥ tov on Genesis 1:27, 29:2, 41:2, Exodus 2:5

Mid-12th Century

God created the man in his own image . . . male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Male and female He created them—Our Rabbis, of blessed memory, said that the first human was created “two-faced” [one side male, the other female] . . . and therefore God says, I shall make a helpmate beside him (Genesis 2:18), implying that until that…

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The work Good Teaching (Lekaḥ tov) is a running Hebrew commentary on the Torah and the five Scrolls. Tuviah ben Eliezer incorporated both peshat (plain meaning) exegesis and homiletical midrash. Tuviah knew Greek and Latin and had access to a wide range of rabbinic literature.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval Bible Translations and Commentaries

7th to 12th Century

Creator Bio

Tuviah ben Eliezer

11th Century–12th Century

Not much is known about the life of Tuviah ben Eliezer, who was active in Kastoria, Greece. Tuviah composed a long Hebrew commentary, titled Good Teaching (Lekaḥ tov), on the Torah and the five Scrolls. He dedicated his work to the Jewish martyrs of the Crusader attacks of 1096 in Mainz, Germany; some scholars suggest that he was born there. He held positions of leadership and apparently participated in a Greek-Jewish messianic movement that may have been influenced by Crusader interest in Palestine. Tuviah might be said to represent a Byzantine school of rabbinic interpretation. Alongside polemics against Karaites, he cites grammatical and literal readings of the Torah, together with aggadic traditions.

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