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Eliezer ben Nathan: what Wikipedia removed

Eliezer ben Nathan was a medieval French Tosafist whose liturgical poetry expressed hatred toward the Christian crusaders and wrestled with why God allowed so many Jews to be massacred. Through 2005 that line appeared in the opening. Today the word massacre survives twice in the body, but the opening covers only his rabbinic lineage and the Troyes synod. A reader arriving now learns his family produced generations of rabbis, not that he chronicled the Crusade-era massacres of Jews.

The word “massacre” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2005. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 2. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.

The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot

Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”
word20052010201520206 October 20232025
massacre100000

Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.

What was taken out

Section titled “What was taken out”
  • The clause stating that the massacre forced him to flee his town, dropped along with the reference to the massacre itself.

How it opened then, and now

Section titled “How it opened then, and now”

2005 (revision 16037944):

Eleizer ben Nathan ( 1090 - 1170 ) was a Jewish poet and writer. His chronicle, Persecution of 1096, vividly described the violence that occurred against the Jewish communities during the German Crusade , part of the First Crusade . It expressed great hatred towards Christian crusaders , and wrestled with the matter of why God would allowed so many Jews to be massacred. He strongly disliked all crusaders. They forced him to flee his town and slaughtered many of his friends and loved ones. These crusades have strongly affected him and held his place in history. His records have helped our further knowledge of crusades. v t e

2025 (revision 1283916662):

French Tosafist Eliezer ben Nathan ( Hebrew : אליעזר בן נתן ) of Mainz (1090–1170), or Ra’avan ( ראב”ן ‎), was a halakist and liturgical poet. As an early Rishon , he was a contemporary of the Rashbam and Rabbeinu Tam , and one of the earliest of the Tosafists . He was the son-in-law of Eliakim b. Joseph of Mainz, a fellow student of Rashi . Through his four daughters Eliezer became the ancestor of several learned families which exerted a great influence upon religious life in the subsequent centuries. One of his great-grandsons was Asher b. Jehiel (ROSH), father of R. Jacob, author of the Ṭurim . In or around 1160, a synod was held in Troyes as part of the Takkanot Shum . This synod was led…

Section titled “Related”

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