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Ashkenaz Ashkenazi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

work

lias been interpolated by later authors. References to Ashkenaz in Yosippon and Hasdai's letter to the king of the Chazars would bring the inquiry down to the tenth century, as would also Saadia

of Ashkenaz,

Gaon's Commentary on Dan. vii. 8. The epistle is, however, of disputed authenticity, while the commentary of Saadia is certainly a work of much later date (see Rapoport, in " Bikkure ha-

dently means German tribes or German lands. It would correspond to a Greek word Ttpfiavacia that may have existed in the Greek dialect of the Palestinian Jews, or the text is corrupted from " Germanica. " This view of R. Berechiah, again, is based on the Talmud (Yoma 10a Yer. Meg. 716), where Gomer, the father of Ashkenaz, is translated by " Germamia, which evidently stands for Germany, and which was suggested by the similarity of the sound. The explanation of N'OD-U as a Mesopotamian district (Neu-

of Hasdai

'Ittim," ix. 34, Vienna, 1828; Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." col. 2195). In a genuine work of Saadia the word, however, is also used, as it seems, in the same

sense (Harkavy, "Measef Nidahim," pp. 1, 90). In the first half of the eleventh century Hai Gaon refers to religious questions that had been addressed

him from Ashkenaz, by which latter term he undoubtedly means Germany ("Sha'are Zedek," No. 99, Leipsic, 1858). Rashi in the latter half of the eleventh century refers to both the language of Ashkenaz (Commentary on Deut. iii. 9; idem on Suk. 17a) and the country of Ashkenaz (Hul. 93a). Dur-, ing the twelfth century the word appears quite frequently. In the " Mahzor Vitry " (ed. S. Hurwitz, pp. 112, 392, Berlin, 1892), a liturgical work, the to

kingdom

of

Ashkenaz is referred to chiefly in regard synagogue there, but occasion-

to the ritual of the

ally also (ib.

with regard to certain other observances

p. 129).

Eliezer ben Nathan, in his history of the persecuduring the Crusades (" Quellen zur Gesch. der

tion

Juden tions a

in Deutschland,"

mob

(Germans).

ii.

36,

Berlin,

of Zarfatim (French) and The same words are used

1892), menAshkenazim by Solomon

ben Simson (ib. p. 1). German as the language of Ashkenaz is frequently referred to in the anonymous work on ritual, called "Asufot" (Gildemann, "Geschichte des Erziehungswesens und der Cultur in Frankreich und Deutschland," 1880, pp. 113, 131; see also pp. 50, 276). In the literature of the thirteenth century refer-

ences to the land and the language of Ashkenaz See especially Solomon ben Adret's often occur. Responsa (vol. i., No. 395); the Responsa of Asher ben Jehiel (pp. 4, 6) his " Halakot " (Berakot i. 12, ed. Wilna, p. 10); the work of his son Jacob ben Asher, "Tur Orah Hayyim" (lix.); the Responsa of Isaac ben'Sheshet (Nos. 193, 268, 270). It is strange, however, that Mei'r of Rothenburg, a prominent German rabbi of the thirteenth century, does not seem to employ the word at all, while he quotes the

as the language of Canaan (Responsum, No. 30, p. 8, ed. Bloch, 1891; see also is evidently a misprint), p. 10, where the word

German word Pvtz

unp

our kingdom

"

speaks of the latter as the greatest of all the rabbis Zarphat ("Betha-Behirah," 1854. p. 170)— a usage which may have originated in the age of Charlemagne, when Germany was part of the Frankish in

kingdom.

The reason

for this rather peculiar identification

11—13



bauer,

"La Geographie du Talmud,"

p. 421, Paris,

1868; Filrst, "Glossarium Groeco-Hebraum," p. 92, Strasburg, 1891; Krauss, "Lateinische und Griechische Lehn worter ") is forced. Not better is the derivation by Elijah Levita from the Talmudic p-|j "fair " (see Tishbi, s.«.,and "Monatsschrift," xxxviii. peculiar usage of the word is found in the 260). dictionary of Samuel ben Solomon of Urgenj, who interprets Ashkenaz as Khwarizm (see Bacher, " Ein

=

A

Hebraisch-Persisches"Worterbuch,"pp.

19, 31,

Buda-

pest, 1900).

In later times the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern and western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of eastern Germany and Poland. Thus the prayer-book of Isaiah Horowitz, and manj' others, give the piyyutim according to the Minhag of Ashkenaz and Poland. The neo-Hebraic writers, mostly of Russian and Polish origin, have coined a verb, TJ3E>xnn, " to ape

modern

social

manners." D.

ASHKENAZI,

ABRAHAM

Chief rabbi of Palestine {Vih ptWl), born at Janishar, near Salonica, in 1813 died at Jerusalem Jan. 22, 1880. At the age of fifteen he was taken by his father to Jerusalem, where he studied rabbinical literature in the various colleges. The Turkish rabbis, in consulting him at the age of thirty -five on matters of religious law, addressed him as " Gaon. " In 1850 he was appointed dayyan of the Jewish community of Jerusalem; and in 1869 the rabbis of Jerusalem



elected

him

Hazan,

who

as their chief in succession to David died in that year. The sultan, in con-

firming Ashkenazi 's election, conferred upon him the title of " Hakam Bashi," whereby he became chief rabbi of Palestine, which post he held for about twelve years. The sultan also bestowed upon him the medal of the Medjidie and Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, when at Jerusalem, decorated him with the Franz Josef medal. Ashkenazi was very popular among Christians and Mohammedans as well as among Jews and at his funeral most of the foreign

" ["

be-malkutenu "], as distinguished from England and Normandy. His contemporary Samuel ben Samuel, however, employs this word in a letter addressed to R. Meir in a context which renders it difficult to decide what he meant by it ("Monatsschrift," xviii. 209). It is also curious that Mei'r ben Solomon of Perpignan, who was a younger contemporary of Mei'r of Rothenburg,

and speaks of

who is one of the descendants of Japheth (Gen. x. 3), is found in the Midrash, where R. Berechiah says: "Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah are X^p^DIJ " (Gen. R. xxxvii. 1), which evi-



consuls were present. Bibliography: HahazeUU No.

1880, No. 16;

Ha-Zefirah,

1880,

7.

H. R.

s.

ASHKENAZI, AZRIEL

B.

JOSEPH

(called

Gunzenhauser) Printer at Naples, 1491From his printing-house the first editions of 92. Avicenna's " Canon " and Bahya's "Hobot ha-Lebaalso

bot



"

were

issued.