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172 Ascoli

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Asenath lology

published in the " Archivio Glottologico the brilliant researches on the Gipsy language, which appeared under the title, "Zigeunerisches," and especially an appendix to Pott's work, (first

Italiano

")



"Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien" (Halle, and other works.

I860),

The greater part of Ascoli's scientific papers may be found in his journal, the "Archivio Glottologico which 15 volumes had appeared up to 1900. But he has also Italiano," of

Scientific

Papers.

contributed largely to the following journals among others': "Archivio Storico Italiano," the "Crepuscolo," the "Atti dell' Istituto Lombardo," the "Rivista di Filologia," the " Zeitschrif t der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft," the "Beitrage zur Vergleichenden

Sprachforschung " (ed. Kuhn). His paper in the "Atti del Quarto Congresso degli Orientalist! " shed unexpected light on the origin of the Sassanian coins in the Naples Museum, and supplied a long-felt want by a brilliant interpretation of important medi-

172

Redeemer spread a tabernacle of peace over the people that He hath chosen among all peoples"). In signing these "reshuts," Ascoli added to his name the word Tfl, which seems to correspond to the verse of Psalms i'i -pDn, JN3 , 1 ("Let thy mercies also come unto me, O Lord," Ps. cxix. 41). Bibliography: Landshutb, 'Ammude ha-'Ahodah, p. 104; the

Zunz, Literaturgesch.

p. 523



Mortara, Indicc Alfabetica,

BR

I-

L. G.

ASEFAH



-

Technical term for the meetings of

of the Jewish communities of Poland In cases of importance, the director of the " kahal " (" parnes hodesh ") gave the order to the " shammash " of the " kahal-stubel " (the servant of the office) to call the prominent members of

the

members

and Lithuania.

All the important the "kahal" to a conference. affairs of the community, the internal as well as the external, including in the latter communications from the government authorities, were brought before the Asefah. M. Berlin, Ocherk Etnngrafii Yevreiskavo Bibliography

eval inscriptions in

Hebrew discovered

in southern

Narodmiasclciiiiia v Bossii,

p. 54, St.

Petersburg,

Probably the only work of Ascoli's that did not was his investigations on proto- Aryan tongues and the affinities between the Aryan and the Semitic languages. In Italy his work " Nesso Ario-Semitico," 1863-64, created a new school, which has many adepts among eminent scholars; but European and American philologists are receive universal favor

divided as to the merits of Ascoli's theory. Ascoli has received many honors and distinctions in his professional and literary career. He has been repeatedly elected president of the Honors Reale Accademia Scientifico-Litteraria and Dis- of Milan, and is a member of the Higher tinctions. Council of Public Instruction; cavalier of the Order of Merit of Italy knight of several foreign orders member of the Institute of Lombardy and of the Accademia dei Lincei honorary member of the Asiatic Society of Italy corresponding member of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of Paris member of the academies of Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, St. Petersburg, and of every philological society of importance etc. in his native country and abroad. The long-expected appointment of Ascoli to a senatorship in the kingdom took place Jan. 25, 1889.





De Gubernatis, Dictionnaire International des Ecrivains riu Jour, Florence, 1888-91: G. Vapereau, Dictionnaire Unlversel des Contemporains, Paris, 1893, Brockhaus, Kons.v.; Larousse, La Grande Encyclopedia

Bibliography





veisations-Lexicon, 14th ed.; Meyer, Konversations-LexU con, 5th ed.; Wursbach, Biographisches Lexicon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, Vienna M. Reines, Dor wa-Haka;

maw

(Hebr.), 1890, pp. 21-27.

A.

S.

S.

ASENATH.

—Biblical Data: Daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On, and wife of Joseph (Gen. xli. 45).

The name

is

apparently Egyptian

j.

G. B. L.

jr.

In Rabbinical Literature



—

31 B>i> "|TI miD p^J> "Owk 1Tl praise Thy name, O Most High, who showest the road by which every living being will return to Thee ") (2) For the Feast of Tabernacles: f>3 ifr

They will



D'DJ? f>30

irn

DJ?

bv

DW D3D

^KIJ BHB'

That Joseph,

called " the righteous '' (Book of Wisdom x. 13 Ab. R. N. xvi., and elsewhere), should have married a heathen wife seemed objectionable to the Rabbis;

and they consequently

state that she

was

the child

of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, born after violence had been done her by Shechem, the son of Hamor

(PirkeR. El. xxxviii. Midr. Abkir, quoted in Yalk., Gen. 146; Targ. Yer. Gen. xli. 45, xlvi. 20; Midr. Aggadah, ed. Buber, i. 97). When her brothers had learned of the birth of an illegitimate child in their family, they wanted to kill the child in order But Jacob placed upon to prevent public disgrace. the child's neck a talismanic plate engraved with the name of God, and according to one version left her exposed under a thorn-bush (njD, "seneh," whence the name of the girl, " Asenath"), and the angel Gabriel carried her to the house of Potiphar in Egypt, where the latters wife, being childless, reared her According to another version as her own daughter. (Midr. Aggadah, I.e.), Jacob had the child exposed under the walls of Egypt. Her crying attracted the attention of Potiphar, who was passing at the time. Stories about Asenath, somewhat similar to the Midrashic traditions, are found in Syriac and Arabic

—

—

Bibliography Perles, In Rev. Et. Juives, xxii. 87-92 Payne Smith. Thesaurus Syriacus, s.v. Dinah Sachau, in Kurzes Verzeichniss der Sachau'scnen Samrnlung, p. 7, for the Syriac and Goldziher, in Jeschurun, yiii. 84, lor the Arabic.





Physician and payyetan; lived at Camerino, Italy, perhaps at Ascoli, in the second half of the fifteenth century. Two Reshtjts for Nishmat of his are printed in the Mahzor Romania (1) For the Day of

Atonement: 'n

but no

literatures.

C.

BEN ABRAHAM ROFE



satisfactory explanation has yet been proposed.



ASCOLI, JACOB

etc. ("

1861.

H. R.

Italy.

("May



J.

SR.

K.

ASENATH (in Greek LIFE AND CONFESSION OR PRAYER OF: A Greek •AoeviO),

Apocrypha

of pronounced Jewish character, with only one small Christian interpolation. It contains a Midrashic story of the conversion of Asenath, the wife of Joseph, and of her magnanimity toward her enemies. For a long time known only through an