'תוך ארבע חוטין הללו ארץ כנען': מפות ארץ ישראל בפירושי רש"י ויפת בן עלי הקראי

This article is a first publication of the earliest known Jewish map of the Land of Israel by the tenth century Karaite commentator Yefet ben Eli who lived in Jerusalem, and it compares this map with a well known map by Rashi (R. Shlomo ben Isaac), the famous Jewish commentator from eleventh century France. Both maps appeared in conjunction to the commentary of each of these two scholars to the same verses from the Book of Numbers. Prior to the present study, the latter map had been considered the earliest Jewish map of the Land of Israel and it has been the focus of extensive scholarly discussion.This paper also examines some textual links between the interpretations that surround the map in each of the commentaries and argues that these ties indicate that Rashi’s map was based on geographical cartographical traditions that traveled, through unknown channels, within the Jewish medieval world, from the Muslim east to Latin Europe.