Rabbi Elazar haKappar רבי אלעזר הקפר
"envy, desire and honour take a man out of the world"
Rabbi Elazar haKappar was a contemporary of Rabbi Yehuda haNasi and the father of Bar Kappara; in the baraitot he speaks often, in the Mishnah hardly at all. The byname "haKappar" is connected with trade in Cyprus balsam, or with a place.
In Pirkei Avot, in his name: "Envy, desire and the chase after honour take a man out of the world" (Avot 4:21). And next, his hard reminder that a man is not his own master: those born are born against their will, the living live against their will, the dying die against their will—and an account must be given before the King of kings (Avot 4:22).
His too is one of the most unexpected readings about the nazirite: if one who denied himself only wine is called a sinner by the Torah, how much more sinful is one who afflicts himself in everything (Taanit 11a). From this grew a whole line of the Jewish attitude to asceticism.
The sources give no years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman's Toldot Tannaim ve-Amoraim.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Avot 4:21–22 — «envy, desire and honour»; against one's will
- Taanit 11a — the nazirite as sinner — how much more the self-afflicter
Basis: Talmud and midrash.