(fl. 1st-2nd cent)
Palestinian tanna. He traced his ancestry back ten generations to Ezra. When Rabban Gamaliel II was temporarily deposed as nasi, Eleazar ben Azariah was chosen to succeed him; the school of Jabneh, the centre of rabbinic learning, was opened to all who wished to study, and no longer restricted to those considered worthy. According to tradition, Eleazar ben Azariah went on a mission to Rome with Rabban Gamaliel II. He was a halakhist and an aggadist.
Dictionary of Jewish Biography. Dan Cohn-Sherbok.