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360 Ay lion

Azankot

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Cardozo's work merited public burning, and this sentence was actually carried out. About this time, too, Zebi Ashkenazi came to Amsterdam as rabbi of the Ashkenazic community; his advent was a serious matter to Ayllon, as the former completely eclipsed his Sepbardic colleague by his superior learning and dignity of character; he was also a noted heresy-hunter in the matter of the Sbabbethaian movement. The clash could hardly have been averted, and Nehemiah Hayyun, a notorious Shabbethaian, precipitated it. At the request of M. Hagis,

Ashkenazi examined the works of Hayyun (1711) and rightly denounced them as heretical; in addition, he notified the Mahamad of the fact. This august body, however, did not exactly welcome advice volunteered by a Polish-German rabbi, and replied that, before taking action, Ashkenazi 's opinion would have to be fortified by the assent of Ay lion and other members of their own body. Ashkenazi peremptorily declined this

express invitation to

sit in

council

with Ayllon, for he was well aware both of his ignorance of the Cabala and of his suspected affinity with Shabbethaism. Ayllon saw in this crisis an opportunity to make political capital. He persuaded an

member of the Mahamad, a certain Aaron de Pinto, to take up the matter as an attempt on the part of the German rabbi to interfere with the autonomy of the Sephardic community. It is difficult to discover whether Ayllon was actuated herein by secret loyalty to Shabbethaism, or whether, for personal reasons, he merely sought to clear Hayyun from the imputation cast upon him. The adventurer was well acquainted with Ayllon's antecedents, and it would have been dangerous to make an enemy of him. Be this as it may, De Pinto succeeded in having a resolution passed by the Mahamad, declining to permit any such interference in their affairs by the German rabbi, and requesting Ayllon to appoint a committee to give an official opinion upon Hayyun's work. The finding of this commission was publicly announced Aug. 7, 1713, in the Portuguese synagogue, and it ran that Hayyun was innocent of the heresy charged against him, and that he had been unrighteously persecuted. The committee consisted of seven members, but its conclusions represented simply Ayllon's opinion, for the other six understood nothing of the matter. The affair, however, could not he considered closed herewith, for Ashkenazi and Hagis had already, on July 23, pronounced the influential

ban of excommunication upon Hayyun and his heretbook. In the protracted discussion which ensued between Ayllon and Ashkenazi, a discussion into which the rabbis of Germany, Austria, and Italy were drawn, Ayllon made but a sorry figure, although, as far as Amsterdam was concerned, it might be said to have ended triumphantly for him, seeing that Ashkenazi was compelled to leave the city. Not alone did Ayllon permit his protege, Hayyun, to assail the foremost men in Israel with foulest insults, but he supplied him with personal papers containing attacks upon his opponent Hagis, the unfounded nature of which he himself had formerly admitted and testified to. Ayllon was also no doubt the rabbi who laid charges against Ashkenazi before the Amsterdam magistrates, and thus made an internal dissension of the Jewish community a matter ical

360

of public discussion. It is claimed that upon hearing of the death of Ashkenazi in 1718, Ayllon conIt is certain fessed that he had wronged the man. that when, a few years later, Hayyun visited Amsterdam again, he found matters changed so much that even Ayllon refused to see him. Ayllon left a cabalistic work, a manuscript of which is preserved in the library of the Jews' College in London (Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS.,

No.

135).

Gaster, Hist, of Bevis Marltz. pp. 23-31, Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, x. 305, 309-325, 482-487, D. Kotan, Njn:>, Eben-ha-Toln, pp. 64-74 (reprint from Ha-Sliahar, ill. ) Emden, Meyillat Sefer (see Index); Wolf, Bibl. He.hr. iii. 1026, Iv. 974 Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl.

Bibliography: 107-111;

3d

ed.:





No. 3112.

See also Ashkenazi, Zebi



IIayyun, N.



Nieto,

David.

L. G.

AYTAS, JACOB MOSES

Son of Judah Ayyas; lived at Jerusalem, whence he was sent abroad In 1783 he to collect money for the Palestine poor. visited Algiers, where he was received with great honor. Following a call to Ferrara, he settled there One of his pupils was Nepi, as rabbi and teacher. the associate author of "Toledot Gedole Yisrael." Ayyas wrote " Derek Hayyim " (The Way of Life), treating of annulment of vows, of the ceremony

known



as Tashlik, etc. Leghorn, 1810. Bibliography Benjaeob, Ozar ho-Se/arim, p. 116. ,



l.

M. B.

g.

AYYAS, JUDAH A commentator and

casuist;

born in North Africa about 1690 died at Jerusalem He pursued his Talmudic studies at Sept. 11, 1760. Algiers under the supervision of Solomon Zeror, From 1728 to 1756 Ayyas officirabbi of that city. ated as dayyan of Algiers, in which capacity he was very popular and much consulted on ritual quesIn 1756 he went by way of Leghorn to Jerutions. salem, where he spent the closing years of his life. The chief motive for his departure seems to have been the progressive spirit that began to make itself Ayyas was a strict felt in the Algerian community. Talmudist, a keen casuist, but narrow-minded and without any sympathy for questions outside the domain of Halakah. He wrote: (1) " Lehem Yehudah" (The Bread of Judah), a commentary on Maimonides' "Yad ba-Hazakah" (Leghorn, 1745). (2) "Bet Yehudah" (Judah's House), responsa on the four " Turim " (Leghorn, 1746). This latter work throws some light on the social and economic conditions of the Jewry of North Africa in Ayyas' days. From

the fifth

responsum in Eben ha-'Ezer, for

instance,

appears that cases of bigamy were not rare among Oriental Jews of the eighteenth century. Appended

it

to

it

are the

communal

regulations of Algiers as laid

down by R. Joseph ben Sheshet(E'"3 "i)andR. Simon ben Zemah Duran (jOcn). (3) " Wezotli-Yehudah" ,

(And This Too Is Judah's), commentaries on various subjects (Leghorn, 1776). (4) " Bene Yehudah " (Judah's Sons), on the terminology and style of Maimonides, Tosafot and Mizrahi; this work contains also some responsa appended to it is a treatise, " Ot Berit " (The Sign of the Covenant), on circumcision (Leghorn, 1758). (5) " Matteh Yehudah " (The Tribe of Judah) and (6) " Shebet Yehudah " (Leghorn, 1783, 1788), containing novelise on Shulhan 'Aruk, Orah Hayyim, and Yoreh De'ah. (7)"'Afra de Ar'a"