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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

edge, especially philosophy

thanking God for havand boasting of possessing no knowledge outside the Torah. His position was clearly defined by him when he stated that philosophy is based on critical research, and religion on tradition; the two being incapable of harmonization. Of philosophy, he said, it may be truly stated, " None that go unto her may return " (" Responsa," lv. 9). Asher, however, had the courage of an independent opinion and laid down the principle " We must not be guided in our decisions by admiration of great men and in the event of a law not being clearly stated in the Talmud, we are not bound to accept it, even if it be based on the works of the Geonim" (Weiss, "Dor Dor we-Dorshaw," v. His liberalism, however, is some63). His times orthodoxy in disguise. He de-

ing saved him from

its



influence,





.

Religious Attitude .

clares, for instance, that the liturgy of

the Geonim does not fall under the Talmudic rule forbidding change in the

wording of the

traditional prayers (Maimonides, Yad,"Berakot, i. 16). Similarly, his decision against praying more than three times a day ("Responsa," iv. 13) is really on the side of rigorous orthodoxy. His assertion that the 'words 'J'DD ilWKb ro^n (" an oral law revealed to Moses on Sinai ") do not always bear a literal meaning, but signify, in general, a universally adopted custom, must not be taken as a lib"

eral interpretation bearing out the theory of oral tradition (so Z. Frankel, in " Darke ha-Mishnah," 20),

but as an apologetic attempt to uphold rabbinical authority. The latter view is borne out by the context (Hilkot Mikwaot 1, in the twelfth the usual Talmud editions).

volume of

Asher possessed vast Talmudic knowledge, methodical and systematic, and was distinguished for terseness in summing up long Talmudic discussions, the final results of which he indicated clearly. His attitude, however, toward secular knowledge made his influence on the Spanish Jews a narrowing one.

He espoused

—

the cause of the anti-Maimonists even and desired the synod to issue a decree against the study of non-Jewish learning. Together with 'his sons he thus transplanted the strict and narrow Talmudic spirit from Germany to Spain, where it took root and turned the Spanish Jews from scientific research to the study of the

becoming

their leader

—

Talmud. Asher's extant works are

a commentary on ZeraMishnah, with the excepa commentary on the sixth order

'im, the first order of the

tion of Berakot



(Toharot); on the treatises Nedarim (third order), and Tamid glosses like the Tosafot on several Talmudic treatises a volume of responsa and an abstract of the Talmudic laws (Halakot). .His fame rests on the last-mentioned, constructed on the plan of Alfasi's work. Omitting the haggadic portions of the Talmud, and all the laws not practised outside of Palestine, such as the sacrificial, criminal, and political ones, Asher made an abstract of the practical Halakah, leaving out the discussions, and concisely stating the final decisions. Though in His Works, this respect he follows the example of





he differs from him in quoting notably Alfasi, Maimonides, and Asher's work superseded Alfasi's

Asher, Bnsel Asher b. Levi

within a short time. It became so popular that it has been printed with almost every edition of the

Talmud under the title "Rabbenu Asher," abbreviated w"ai (Rosh). His son Jacob compiled, under the title " Piske ha-Rosh, " a

list of the decisions found Commentaries on Asher's Halakot were

in the work.

written by a

number

of later Talmudists,

among

whom were Yom-Tob Lipman Heller, who wrote

"Ma'adane Melek," "Ma'adane Yom-Tob," "Lehem Hamudot," and " Pilpela Harif ta " Nathaniel Weil, who wrote " Korban Nethanael " and Phineas Selig of Lask, who wrote " 'Ateret Paz." Compare Berlin, Saul b. Zebi Hirsch. Asher had eight sons, of whom the most prominent were Jtjdah and Jacob.



Bibliography

Azulai, Shem lia-Qedolim, s.v. Michael, Or ha-JJayiliin. No. 543; Stelnsctmeider, Cat. Bodl. col. 748; Gratz, Oesch. der Juden, 3d ed. vil. 233 et seq.; Weiss, Dor



Dor we-Dorshaw,

v. 61-70.

L. G.

D.

ASHER BEN JOSEPH. See Anschel. ASHER BEN JTJDAH LOEB LANDAU. See Landau, Asher. ASHER KXJBO. See Cubo, Asher. ASHER, LEMEL HA-LEVI: Polish Talmudic scholar

lived at the end of the eighteenth Together with his two sons, Yehiel Michel ha-Levi of Glogau and Moses ha-Levi of Glogau, he wrote homilies on the Pentateuch, published in 1820 under the title " Hut ha-Meshullash " (The Threefold

century.

Cord). Bibliography Zedner, Cat. Hehr. Books Brit. Mus. p. 61 Ben]acob, Ozar ha-Sefarim, p. 171. h. r. I. Br.

ASHER, LEON: German physician; born April 13, 1865, in Leipsic. He is the son of Dr. David Asher, for many years secretary to Chief Rabbi Nathan M. Adler in London. Leon Asher, after graduating from the public school in Leipsic, studied medicine at the university of that city from 1885 to 1890, and received the degree of M.D. Having worked in the line of medical and psychical research, he went in 1891 to Heidelberg, where he was engaged as laboratory assistant with W. Kuhne and G. Quincke. In 1894 he became assistant at the Bern Ph}'siological Institute in Switzerland, and in 1895 privat-docent at the university. He spent the summer vacations of 1896-98 in the laboratory of the physiologist Hering in Leipsic, and in 1901 was appointed professor of medicine in Bern University.

Asher's researches cover a wide field in nervous and muscular physiology, including the physiology of the sense functions and of the transformation of tissue. Aided by the Berlin Royal Academy of Sciences, he experimented considerably in the direction of ascertaining the qualities of lymph and the

precise mode of its formation; the majority of his conclusions are now accepted in the medical world. He edits, together with K. Spiro, an annual entitled "Ergebnisse der Physiologic" F. de S. M. s.

Alfasi, later authorities,

the Tosafists.

ASHER BEN LEVI (known Masih)



also as

'Abd

al-

Legendary boy convert and, subsequently,