Tobiah ben Eliezer (Hebrew: טוביה בן אליעזר) was a Talmudist and poet of the 11th century, author of Lekach Tov or Pesikta Zutarta, a midrashic commentary on the Pentateuch and the Five Megillot.
According to him, the author of the commentary on the Pentateuch mentioned by Ibn Ezra in the preface to his own work was a certain Meïr of Castoria, a pupil of Tobiah b. Eliezer.
thinks, was composed by the press-corrector Johanan Treves begins פסיקתא זוטרתא או רבתא ("Pesikta, be it small or great").
It was owing to the latter title that Lekach Tov was confused with the Pesikta Rabbati by Gedaliah ibn Yaḥya,[5] J. Heilprin,[6] Azariah dei Rossi,[7] and others.
It is true that in the Jerusalem manuscript there occurs very often the expression "our teacher Tobiah b. Eliezer," from which it might be assumed that Lekach Tov was written by Tobiah's pupils; but from a closer examination of the text, and to judge from the Florence manuscript, it is evident that the expression in question is merely a copyist's mistake.
Even in his aggadic interpretation, which he derives from the Talmud and from the pre-Talmudic and post-Talmudic literatures, Tobiah manifests his love of good style.
In the parts of the Pentateuch which deal with the commandments he inserts many halakhot, apparently taken from various halakhic collections, particularly from Achai Gaon's She'eltot.
It will thus be seen that Lekach Tov was considered as an authority by the German, French, and Italian, but not by the earlier Spanish, scholars.
But later Spanish authorities who, after the expulsion, settled in the East considered Lekach Tov as the chief source for their works.
Four years later the part comprising Genesis and Exodus was published, also under the title Midrash Lekach Tov, by Solomon Buber (Wilna, 1884), who added a long introduction and copious notes.