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182 Asher, Ensel Asher b. Levi

ASHER, ENSEL

B.

JUDAH LOEB

Chief



of the bet din at Slonim, Lithuania, in the beginning of the eighteenth century. He wrote two works: " Ototle-Mo'adim" (Signs for the Feasts) and " Baruk mi-Banim Asher" (Blessed Be Asher Above Sons; Deut. xxxiii. 24). The former contains a novella to Pesahim ix., and also the laws of the festivals and half-festivals. The latter comprises a homiletic commentary on the Pentateuch. Both were published at Zolkiev, in 1749 and 1752 respectively.

Bibliography: Walden, Slicm ha-Gedolim he-Hadaslu 15; Benjacob, Ozar ha-Scfarim, pp. 31-83. l. g.

I.

li.

7

Br.

ASHER BEN HAYYIM OF MONZON



Spanish liturgist of the fourteenth century. He was the author of a book entitled " Ha-Pardes " (Paradise), the ten sections of which are devoted to an exhaustive discussion of the benedictions, the results being epitomized in a single extract entitled " Terumot ha-Pardes " (The Heave-Offerings of Paradise). Azulai saw the manuscript in Italy, and made extracts from it, which he afterward published in his commentary " Shiyure Berakah " to the Shulhan 'Aruk, Orah Hayyim. The manuscript in question was probably identical with that now preserved in The latest authority cited in the Bodleian Library. it is

Yom-Tob

b.

Abraham

of Seville.

Bibliography: Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, ed. Wilna, ii. 61 Michael, Or ha-Hawiim, p. 540 Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hehr.

MSS.

No. 799



Zunz, Bitus,

p. 30.

L. G.

ASHER BEN IMMANTJEL SALEM.

See

Salem.

ASHER, JACOB ABRAHAM BEN ARYEH LOEB KALMANKES Cabalistic and rabbinical

author; born probably in Lemberg about the beginning of the seventeenth century died there April 3, 1681. He wrote (1) "Sefer ha-Eshel " (The Book of the Grove), a volume of homilies, of which the first part, on Genesis, containing also some homiletical remarks by his grandfather, Joseph Kalmankes, was printed in Lublin, n.d. and (2) "Ma'yan haHokmah " (Fountain of Wisdom), an introduction to

especially severe upon the "men of France and the Islands of the Sea," complaining that they had tampered with the liturgy, in some places omitting words

adding to the received text. Asher is as the author of the small edition of the 'Aruk contained in MS. Berne, No. 200, which he compiled in the year 1290 within the space of five

and

best



the Cabala, drawn chiefly from the works of Isaac This latter work was first printed in AmsterLuria. dam, 1652, then in Koretz, 1684, and lastly under the

"'Tob we-Yashar" (Good and Right) in Berlin, Moses ibu Zur put it in rimed prose under the title "Mebo Sha'ar ha-Shamayim " (The Way to the Gate of Heaven), but this was never pubtitle

1706.

lished.

Bibliography: Buber, Anshe Shem, ha-Sefarim, pp.

p.

45; Benjacob,

Ozar

55, 350.

U.

o.

ASHER BEN JACOB HA-LEVI



Talmudic

lexicographer; lived in Osnabriick, Prussia, toward the end of the thirteenth century. His father was probably the "Jacob ha-Levi " mentioned by Eliezer

ha-Darshan as his teacher, and his nephew was Isaac ben Judah ha-Levi, author of KT1 njjffl (SteinAsher was the schneider, "Cat. Bodl." col. 1127). pupil of Samuel ben Baruch of Bamberg. He wrote explanations of various parts of the Mahzor, to be found in MSS. Munich, No. 423, Bodleian, No. 1102, as well as in a private MS. in the library of David

Kaufmann

(in

"

Monatsschrif t, "

xli. 146).

He

is

in others

known

weeks

for his

nephew

Isaac ben Eleazer ha-Levi. folios, and follows in

This recension contains 142

the main the Regensburger MS. of the same work. Asher has, however, inserted into his edition a number of words dealing with the liturgy that are not to be found in the large 'Aruk. This manuscript served as the basis for Buxtorf's "Lexicon Hebrseo-Chal-

daicum." Asher must not be confounded with a man of the same name who lived during the twelfth century, and perhaps belonged to the same family and who corresponded with Eliezer ben Nathan "3N"l), and According lived in Worms or that neighborhood. to Gross ("Magazin," x. 76), this latter Asher was the son of Jacob ben Isaac ben Eliezer of Worms (Zunz, "L. G." p. 156). Perles thinks that Eleazer ben Asher ha-Levi, who collected the valuable " Sefer Zikronot," was his son (Neubauer, "Medieval Jewish Gaster, "Chronicles of JerahChronicles," i. xx. meel," p. 1). From the similarity in names, Perles argues that the family of Asher ben Jacob ha-Levi must be connected with the older Ha-Levi family of which Zunz has given ("Literaturgesch." p. 156) the pedigree (compare also Salfeld, "Nilrnberger

Memorbueh," pp. Bibliography

104, 361).

Zunz. Bitus, p. 195 Perles. in Monatsschrift, and in Jubelschrift zum Siebzigsten Geburstage



xxv. 372, des Prof. Dr. H. Griitz, pp. let seq.; Kaufmann, in Monatsschrift, xxxiv. 185 et seq. Weiss, in Mnnatsschrift, xli. 146 Neubauer, Catalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts of Bodl. Libr. col. 311.





i,.

182

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

I..

G.

G.

ASHER BEN JEHIEL



Eminent Talmudist;

born in western Germany about 1250 died in Toledo, Spain, 1328. His family was prominent for learning and piety his father having been a learned Talmudist, and one of his ancestors (not his grandfather) having been Eliezer ben Nathan "2K~i). Asher ben Jehiel was the most prominent disciple of Mei'r b. Baruch of Rothenburg, and, like his



teacher, was in all probability the victim of blackmail by the government, which desired to deprive him of his fortune. His emigration from Germany was probably involuntary for, according to his own statement, he possessed considerable means while in Germany, but in later years could not assist his son Jacob, whose poverty prevented him Settles in from honoring the Sabbath with speToledo. cial garments and meals ("Tur Orah Hayyim," § 242). Moreover, Asher's son Judah testifies to the fact that he died in poverty ("Bet Talmud," pp. 372-375). After leaving' Germany he settled first in southern France, then in Toledo, of -which latter city he became rabbi on the recommendation of Solomon Adret. In his religious attitude he resembled his teacher, Mei'r of Rothenburg, representing the rigorous school which was averse to lenient decisions in legal matters, even when theoretically justified ("Responsa," xlvi., c. 2). He was also opposed to secular knowl;