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195 and

his children hereditary honorary citizenship. In 1882 Ashkenazi was sent as delegate to the rabbinical convention at St. Petersburg; and in 1888 he was one of the few Jewish representatives who attended officially the coronation of Alexander III. at Moscow. In 1884 he was appointed chairman of the committee on prisons of the government of Grodno. Bibliography: A hiasaf, 1894-95.

M. B.

h. e.

ASHKENAZI, BENJAMIN

ABRAHAM.

Ashkenazi, Azriel Ashkenazi, David

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

195

See Solnik,

B.

AARON

Benjamin ben Aaron

Abraham.

BEZALEL

One of the leadASHKENAZI, ing Oriental Talmudists and rabbis of his day; born toward the end of the sixteenth century. Descended from a family of German scholars, he was probably born in Palestine. The greater part of his life was spent in Egypt, where he received his Talmudic education from David b. Solomon Ibn Abi ZimDuring the lifetime of his ra and Israel de Curial. teachers, Ashkenazi was regarded as one of the highest authorities in the Orient, and he counted among his pupils such men as Isaac Luria and Solomon Adeni. The reputation of Ashkenazi in Egypt was so great that he could take it upon himself to abrogate the dignity of the nagid, which had existed for centuries and had gradually deteriorated into an When, in 1587, a arbitrary aristocratic privilege. dispute occurred in Jerusalem over the point whether scholars not engaged in business should contribute to the taxes paid by the Jewish community to the pasha, and to what extent, Ashkenazi, together with several other rabbis, took the stand that Jewish scholars, being usually impelled by love alone to emigrate to Palestine, and being scarcely able to support themselves, should be relieved from all

taxes.

In the same year, Ashkenazi himself traveled to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem, where he was recognized as their chief by both the Sephardim and the Ashkenazim. The conditions in Jerusalem were and it was mainly due at this time very critical to Ashkenazi's influence that the congregations of the city were not dissolved. The German Jews, who ordinarily did not recognize the jurisdiction of the Sephardim, and who, being largely scholars, refused to pay the Jews' tax, nevertheless bowed to Ashkenazi's authority. The Ashkenazim had to contribute to the Jews' tax one-sixth of the sum that was sent from Europe for their support (compare Halckah); otherwise the Sephardim, who were on the verge of penury, could not have remained in Jerusalem under the merciless exploitation This peaceable arrangement of the Turkish pashas. between the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim was due solely to the personal influence of Ashkenazi for immediately upon his death the Ashkenazim

Yom-Tob

refused to keep their pledge (Responsa of Zahalon, No. 160).

To posterity Ashkenazi is known principally as the author of the " Shittah Mekubbezet " (Gathered This work, as its title indicates, is Interpretation). a collection of glosses on the greater part of the Talmud, after the fashion of the Tosafot and in it Ashkenazi combined much original and foreign ma;

The great value of the " Shittah " lies principally in the fact that Ashkenazi gives therein numerous excerpts from Talmudic commentaries which have not otherwise been preserved. The " Shittah " contains expositions of the Talmud taken from the works of the Spaniards Nahmanides, ben Adret, and Yom-Tob of Seville, and from those of the Frenchmen Abraham b. David, Baruch b. Samuel, Isaac of Chinon, etc. The study of the " Shittah, is particularly valuable for understanding the Tosafists, because the work contains some of the older and inedited Tosafot; besides, glosses of B. Asher b. Jehiel and of the disciples of R. Perez are partly contained in it. Ashkenazi designed the " Shittah " to cover the whole Talmud; but only the following tracts were interpreted: Bezah, the three Babot, Ketubot, Nedarim, Nazir, Sotah, and the order of Kodashim (excepting Hullin) the last-mentioned in the Romm edition of the Talmud. Ashkenazi is also the author of a collection of responsa, which terial.

—

appeared after his death (Venice, 1595). His " Methodology of the Talmud," and his marginal notes to the Yerushalmi, which were still extant at the time of Azulai, are preserved in manuscript at Jerusalem. Bibliography: 36

Conforte,



Frumkin, 1874

Michael,



lem, d.

ii.

Azulai,

Shem

ha-Gediilim, ed. Benjacob,

1.

gore ha-Dorot

(see index in Cassel ed.) ; pp. 67 et xeq., 125 et seq., Wilna, ha-Hayyim, No. 612 ; Luncz, in Jerusa-

Eben Shemuel, Or

23-27.

L. G.

ASHKENAZI, DAVID TEVLE

B.

JACOB



Moravian rabbi and author; born at the beginning of the eighteenth century died July 16, 1734. Ashkenazi was rabbi of the communities at Aussee and Gewitsch, and lived at Aussee, the home of his

father-in-law, Israel Aussee, one of the wealthiest and most influential Jews in Moravia. But this

very wealth of his father-in-law gave rise to active toward Ashkenazi in his congregation. The following episode is characteristic of the state of affairs at that time in many small Jewish communities in Moravia. Ashkenazi was so little respected by his people that he had to apply to the He secured an authorities to enforce his rights. order threatening the congregation with a large fine if they did not show their rabbi the honors due to Next day, when Ashkenazi went to the his station. early morning service, he found his seat framed with the handles (called " ears " in German) of broken In Judseo-German "Ehre" (honor) sounds pottery. the same as "Oehre" (ears), and these were the "honors" shown him. It is not known whether Ashkenazi gave up his position after this. He died at Boskowitz, where his son-in-law was ecclesias-

hostility

tical assessor. "

Ashkenazi wrote a curious little book entitled Bet David " (House of David), Wilhelmsdorf 1734. ,

part contains casuistic expositions of the Talmud, and illustrates better than almost any other work the degeneration of casuistry. The second

The

half

first

is

which

a collection of popular cures and incantations, is of great value for the study of Jewish

folk-lore.

Bibliography: Broda Abraham tarim, 1895. pp.

b.

Mordekai, Meaillat Se-

28, 29.

L. G.

,