Eliahu Mordecai Werbel (; 1806, Tarnopol - 1880, Odessa) was a Hebrew-language poet, translator, and educator who worked in the Russian Empire.
His daughter Paulina would become Abraham Goldfaden's wife.Alyssa P. Quint, "Pomul Verde", in: Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Cultures Online
Of note is his 1852 romantic poem Faithful Witnesses or a Rat and a Pit ( (subtitled "Romantic poem in four metrical cantos, the parable of the rat and the pit (Talmud Taanith fol. 8, Tosafoth)") based on a Haggadic legend , which allegedly served as an inspiration for Goldfaden's play Shulamith .Dov Sadan, "The Legend of the Rat and the Pit - Some Material for the Shulamith Polemic" (דב סדן, "לאגדת חולדה ובור - קצת חומר לפולמוס שולמית", מולד טו, תשי"ז-תשי"ח, עמ' 467–468) In some variants of the legend, a lad promised a lass to marry her after rescuing her from a pit. She asked "Who are the witnesses?" A rat was running by, and the lad answered "the rat and the pit". The lad forsake the wow and married another woman. But his two his sons perished: one fell into a pit, and another was bitten by a rat.
Another notable work is Siftei Renanot (1864), a collection of poems translated into Hebrew. References
External links Eliahu Mordecai Werbel (1806-1880), items in the National Library of Israel עדים נאמנים או חולדה ובור [Faithful Witnesses or a Rat and a Pit], poem, 1852 שפתי רננות [Siftei Renanot], 1864 (with a preface in German)