ר׳ אליעזר מטוך

ר׳ אליעזר מטוך (fl. second half of the thirteenth century; d. before 1291) was one of the final French Tosafists and a decisive editor of Tosafist literature. Very little is securely known of his biography. He was a nephew of ר׳ חזקיה ממגדבורג and may be identical with ר׳ אליעזר בן שלמה who signed a responsum concerning residence rights at Goslar; modern scholarship has also debated his precise patronymic. He studied with ר׳ יצחק בן משה מווינה, the אור זרוע, and taught ר׳ חיים פלטיאל. Contemporaries ranked him with ר׳ מאיר בן ברוך מרוטנבורג, and a later authority called him head of the French yeshiva. At Touques in Normandy he adapted, abridged, and reorganised earlier Tosafot, especially those of ר׳ שמשון בן אברהם משאנץ, while incorporating later interpretations and his own marginal גליון תוספות. After further revision by subsequent scholars, תוספות טוך became the principal foundation for the Tosafot printed beside many tractates of the Babylonian Talmud. His redaction is especially associated with Shabbat, Pesachim, Ketubot, Gittin, Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, Bava Batra, Shevuot, and Hullin. A Torah commentary attributed to him is known only from a manuscript book-list. He died before 1291. No portrait exists.