Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/201

163 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

163

in a Paris manuscript (No. 655, 6), under "Distinctio Mundi Secundum Magistrum Hebrseum, Qualiter Terra Permanet Ordi-

be found the

title

Asaph

Steinit has been published by Neubauer. schneider suggests that the name occurs in a cor" rupted form in a Greek manuscript, Viaticum " (Paris, MS. No. 2241), as 'Aotfvloc 'Ipaniov.

nal*";

Bibliography



A

complete description of the work

Is

given bv

Steinschneider in Hebr. Bibl. xix. 35, 64, 84, 105. The introduction has been printed by Jellinek in Bet ha-Midrash, iii. 155, and the Hippocratie oath by Fuenn in Karmcl, i. 239, and by Dukes in Monatsschrift, viii. 202; compare Steinschneider, I.e. A number ot quotations will be found in Kaufmann, Die Slime, Index, s.u. The Aramaic terminology has been studied by Low in AramUische Pftanzennamen, Compare also Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iv. 789; p. 24 et passim. Steinschneider, Donnolo (1868), passim idem, Jewish Literature, p. 367 Rapoport, in Ozar ha-Hnkmah, ed. J. Barasch, p. iii. (Vienna, 1856); Zunz, in Geiger's Jlld. Zeitschrift, iv. 199, reprinted in his Gesammeltc Schriften, i. 16(1 Neubauer, in Orient und Occident, ii. 659, 767 idem. Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS. No. 2138 ; Furst, Gesch. der Karller,







pp. 24, 139; Monatsschrift, vi. 277.

G.

L. G.

ASARAMEL A name of uncertain meaning and intent occurring in I Mace. xiv. 28. The reading, as it has come down, gives it as the name of a place but it is possible that it realty is the name or In support of the first view it has "a title of Simon. been suggested that it is a corruption of "Hazar 'Am El " "(Court of the People of God). Wernsdorf Grimm, and others see in the word the title of Simon, "Sar 'Am El " (Prince of the People of God),



j.

G. B. L.

jr.

ASARELAH

or

ASHAEELAH

One of the Temple serv:

Asaphites appointed by David to the ice, according to I Chron. xxv. 2). In verse 14 the same personage appears as " Jesharelah. " The readings " Asarelah " and " Jesarelah " (with s) seem preferable. The variation in the initial syllable has a parallel in "Jesse," usually written "Yishai" OB"), but which appears once as "Ishai " PE^K, I Chron. ii. 13). The name itself may be a distortion of Israel plus an emphatic ending "a." See Kittel's note in "S. B. 0. T." to Chron. iv. 16. J.

Jr.

ASCALON (ASKELON). See Asiikelon. ASCAMA (TO3Dn; plural Ascamot) The name

given by Spanisli and Portuguese Jewish communities to the laws governing their internal administration. These laws, approved and accepted as binding by the members, called in general " Yehidim," were, for the most part, framed upon ancient models. They are a survival, to a certain extent, of the old internal administration of the Jewries of Spain and Portugal. Originally written in Spanish or Portuguese, they have been translated into the respective vernaculars of the countries in which The ascamot of the these communities now exist. English communities, framed in 1664, were translated from the original Portuguese into English in the year 1819. They correspond somewhat to the " tekanot of the Ashkenazic communities, though the latter are

more limited

in their scope,

cisions in council "

on certain

and more

affairs of

like " de-

communal

interest. " the Ashkenazim the word " haskamah form of " Ascama ") is used exclusively in

Among (correct

Asaph Ascarelli

the sense of approbation, and is chiefly employed as the name of a permit for the publication of a book. This haskamah or license had to be signed by at least three rabbis. The first instance of this kind of censorship seems to have occurred in 1554 in Italy (see

I.

pp. 69

Abraham's "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,"

not for the purpose of stamping the special religious character, but to prevent the publication of any work that was likely afterward to be destro}'ed by the censor appointed et seq.),

book with any

by the

Inquisition. It would also serve the purpose of safeguarding the author's copyright. In later times the license was transformed into a recom-

mendation.

—

Formerly the Mahamad 'that is, the governing of the Sephardic communities also claimed a similar right to grant the license for any book published under its .jurisdiction. H a kam David Nieto published his " Matteh Dan " in London (1714) without any haskamah, but "con licencia de los Senores del Mahamad " (with the license of the Mahamad). In the same manner every local authority claimed the right to grant or to refuse such a license. See Approbation, Censorship.

—

body

Bibliography

w. Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books,



1899, pp. 39, 44, 94, 106.

M. Ga.

d.

ASCARELLI, DEBORAH



poetess,

Italian

and wife of Giuseppi Ascarelli; lived at Venice at the end of the sixteenth and at the beginning of the seventeenth century. As early as 1560 Deborah was

known in Rome as She translated into Italian verse a poetess of talent. the second section of part two of Moses Rieti's " Mikdash Me'at," which, under the title "Me'on ha-Showas recited in the Italian synagogues. Tempio di oratori " commenced as follows

alim," "

This

" Tempio di chi chiede em fin perfetto Di cbi ricerca sol gratia e amore E da vita il tuo fronto benedetto."

was published in 1601-2 by David della Rocca (Venice, 31 pp.), together with Deborah's translation of Bahya's "Tokehah" (Admonition to the Soul); Rabbenu Nissim's " Longer Confession " the SephIt



ardic 'Abodah for the Day of Atonement; some and an anonymous original poems of Deborah, poem, supposed to have been written by the editor. The work was intended for liturgical purposes, and

contained also the

Hebrew

translations keep close to the spirited and full of real poetic is

known

of her

originals.

Hebrew fire.

Deborah's but are

text,

Nothing further

life.

Juifs, ix. 31, 866 Kay159, 354; Mortara, InCat. Bodl. col. 1988; Steinschneider, dice Alfabetico.s.v.; idem, Monatsschrift, xliii. 92; Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 3d ed.,p.l32; Berliner, Gesch. der Juden in Bom,ii. 194; Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Bom, ii. 264, 265.

Bibliography Basnage, Histnire (ta serling, Die JMkschcn Frauen, pp.





I.

g.

Br.

ASCARELLI, MOSES VITA (JEHIEL): Physician at Rome died Dec. 11, 1889. He received his early education at the Talmud Torah in that city, and later studied medicine at the University of Rome. During the cholera epidemic in 1867 he

distinguished himself by his disinterested labors, in recognition of which he received a medal from Pope