ELIEZER BEN NATHAN OF MAINZ (RABEN)

(c.1090-c.1170)

   German scholar. He lived in Slavic countries, then settled in Mainz. His Sepher ha-Raban (also called Even ha-Ezer) is the first complete book emanating from the German Jewish community to have survived. It contains responsa, and various extracts and halakhic rulings following the order of talmudic tractates. He was also the first commentator on liturgical poetry in Germany. Some of his own piyyutim were influenced by the terrors of the First Crusade.