Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/269

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

231

Scripture means by saying (Prov. xxix. 4), The king by judgment establisheth the earth but the man that holdeth himself aloof [" terumah " = separation] overthroweth it " (Tan. Mishpatim, 2). Some '



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writers regard this scene as occurring at the death of Assi II. but the concluding words of the visitor's address, as well as the dying teacher's reason for his anxiety, are entirely inconsistent with the career of

Assi II., whose activity as judge is a prominent feature of his life. (Yer. Shab. i. 3a Yer. Shek. vi. 506 Yer. Suk. i. 52a; Yeb. 166; Ned. 216; Yer. Ned. iii. 37tf; Yer. Git. ix. 50d; B. B. 126a; Shebu. 26a, 41a; Hul. 19a, 20a).

Bibliography ill.



97, lb. 154



Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, 11. Halevy, Dorot ha-Rialmiiim,

s.v.; li.

Weiss, Dor,

228.

Assi (Assa, Issi, Josa, Josah, Jose) II., B,.: A Palestinian amora of the third generation, third and fourth centuries; one of the two Palestinian scholars known among their Babylonian contemporaries as " the Palestinian judges " and as " the distinguished priests of Palestine," his companion being R. Ammi (Git. 596; Sanh. ITS). Assi was born in Babylonia, where he attended the college of Mar Samuel (Yer. Ter. i. 40a Yer. Er. vi. 23cZ), but later emigrated in consequence of domestic trouble. On his arrival in Tiberias, Assi had an adventure with a ruffian, which ended disastrously for the latter. Assi was making his way toward the baths, when he was assaulted by a "scorner." He did not Tesent the assault, except by remarking, " That man's neck-band is too loose," and continued on his way. It so happened that an archon was at that very hour trying a thief, and the scoffer, still laughing at the adventure with Assi, came to witness the trial just when the judge interrogated the culprit as to accomplices. The culprit, seeing the man laughing, thought that it was at his discomfiture, and to avenge himself pointed to the ruffian as his accomplice. The man was apprehended and examined. He confessed to a murder he had committed, and was sentenced to be hanged with the convicted thief. Assi, on returning from the baths, encountered the procession on its way to the execution. His assailant on seeing him exclaimed, "The neck-band which was loose will soon be tightened " to which Assi replied, " Thy fate has long since been foretold, for the Bible says (Isa. xxviii. 22), Be ye not scorners lest your bands be made strong " (Yer. Ber. ii. 5c). Assi became a disciple of R. Johanan, and so distinguished himself that R. Eleazar called him " the prodigy of the age " (" mof et ha-dor" Hul. 1036), and Concerning the futile as such legend pictures him. longings of many to communicate with the departed spirit of R. Hiya the Great, legend relates that R. Jose fasted eighty days in order that a glimpse of R. Hiya might be granted him. Finally the spirit of the departed appeared but the sight so affected R. Jose that his hands became palsied and his eyes dim. " Nor must you infer from this, " the narrator continues, " that R. Josah was an unimportant individual. Once a weaver came to R. Legend, Johanan and said, In a dream I have seen the skies fall, but one of thy disetc. ciples held them up.' When asked whether he knew that disciple, the weaver replied that he would be able to recognize him. R. Johanan '





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Asshurites

Assignment

thereupon had all his disciples pass before the weaver, pointed to R. Josah as the miraculous agent (Yer. Kil. ix. 326; Eccl. R. ix. 10). Another adventure, which, however, bears the impress of fact, is related of him, wherein he was once abducted in a riot and given up as lost, but R. Simon ben Lakish, the former gladiator, rescued him at the risk of his

who

own

life (Yer. Ter. viii. 466). Assi's professional career in Palestine is so closely intertwined with that of R. that the reader may be referred to the sketch of the latter for infor-

Ammi

mation on that subject.

R. Assi was very methodmaking no digressions to answer questions not germane to the subject under discus-

ical in his lectures,

and whenever such were propounded to him, he put off reply until he reached the subject to which they related (Yer. Shab. xix. 16a'; Yer. 'Er. vi. 24a). R. Assi is frequently quoted in both Talmudim and in the Midrashim. Profound is his observation " At first the evil inclination is like Wisdom of a shuttle-thread (or spider-web), but Assi eventually it grows to be like a cart His Death., rope, as is said in the Scriptures (Isa. sion





v. 18), 'Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if it were with a cart rope " (Suk. 52a). An anecdote characteristic of rabbinical sympathy for inferiors and domestics is thus related The wife of R. Jose had a quarrel with her maid, and her husband declared her in the wrong whereupon she said to him, " Wherefore didst thou declare me wrong in the presence of my maid ? " To which the rabbi replied, " Did not Job (xxxi. 13) say, If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me, what '



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do when God riseth up? And when shall I answer Him?'" (Gen. R. xlviii. 3). When Assi died, R. Hiya b. Abba, who had been his associate as judge and as teacher, went into mourning as for a relative (Yer. Ber. iii. 6a). The day of his death is recorded as coincident with then shall

He

I

visiteth,

what

a destructive hurricane

(51.

K.

266).

The suggestion may here be offered that R. Assi, before his emigration to Palestine, was known as Assi (Issi, Jose) b. Nathan, the one that is met with in an halakic controversy w ith Ulla (b. Ishmael, Ber. 62a), propounding a ritual question to Hiya b. Ashi (Shab. 53a), and seeking an interpretation of a Baraita from the mouth of Rab Sheshet (Ned. 78a B. B. 121a). Bibliography Gratz, Oesch. der Juden, iv. 300-307, 2d ed. Frankel, Mebo, 100a (here some of the references undoubtedly point to Assi I.); Weiss, Dor, iii. 97; Bacher, Aa. Pal. Amor. ii. 143-173 (here some sayings of Assi 1. are attributed to Assi II.) Halevy Dorut ha-Rishonlm, ii. 232. r







J.

SR.

S.

M.





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ASSIGNMENT

According to common law, the transferring and setting over to another of some right, title, or interest in things in which a third party, not a party to the assignment, has a con:

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cern and interest " (J. Bacon's " Abridgment, " p. 329). Strictly speaking, according to Jewish law there can be no Assignment of claims or rights in a thing, but only an Assignment of the thing itself (Shulhan 'Aruk, Hoshen Mishpat, 66, 1). In this respect the early Jewish law and the common law agree, although they differ in their reason for the rule. The common law assigns as a reason that to allow the granting or Assignment of a " chose in action " (a right to receive, or recover a debt, or money, which can not be enforced without action) to a third person