Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/413

371 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

371

natural: the style is too stiff; in form it must be didactic and every deviation or imaginative flight is barred. Their dry enumeration of the precepts in;

deed would compel the characterization which they receive from Jair Hayyim Bacharach (Responsa, No. 51, applied to special Azharot, see below); namely, that they read like a chapter from the Mishnah, save that their form and a certain choice of expression in the earliest attempts remind one that they are to be considered as poetical compositions. Fine passages are nevertheless to be found in the opening or introductory poems (niTTID, flDTD) and in the closing verses. These poetical efforts were usually provided by the authors of the Azharot themselves but in some cases they have been added by

others; as, for instance, the introduction to Gabirol's Azharot, written by David b. Eleazar Pakudah, and the poems introducing the affirmative and the negative precepts, respectively, in Kimhi's Azharot,

by Levi b. Gershon. As was to be expected, these

written

poetical embodiments of the 613 precepts were at intervals met with the same violent remonstrance which greeted the computation of the number 613 for the Protest precepts. Abraham ibn Ezra (" Yesod Against Moreh," gate 2, end) remarks that the Azharot. authors of Azharot in general resemble a man who counts the various medicinal herbs enumerated in medical works with-

out knowing anything of their virtues. Maimonides also expresses his disapproval (Introduction to " Sefer ha-Mizwot "); but he excuses the authors as being "poets and not rabbis."

Mahzor commentary

that the

Dukes quotes from a Mayence sages express

themselves against the Azharot r6l"Un nflX because various Biblical commands are therein omitted (" Literaturblatt des Orients," 1843, col. 714). Moses Bodingen (Mahzor, ed. Metz, 1817) gives a list of the precepts omitted in these Azharot, and supposes that the author must have written ten sections, of which two were lost. As early as the Tosafot

(Yoma

8a; B. B. 1456; Nid. 30«) attention

was drawn

to the fact that Elijah ha-Zaken had not been sufficiently careful in harmonizing his statements with the Halakah. Many similar protests might be ad-

did not avail to prevent the incorporation of the Azharot in the rituals of all countries, where indeed they In the Liturgy, have maintained their position to this day. It was for the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) especially, commemorating the Revelation on Sinai, that the Azharot were particularly intended and they were recited in the Musaf (AdIn some localities ditional) Prayer of that day. probably at a later date, and in order not to prolong unduly the morning service— the Azharot were relegated to a position either before or after the Minhah When the Sabbath before this (afternoon) service. festival came to receive more regard, like the socalled "Great Sabbath" immediately before the Originally, Passover, Azharot were read on it also. the rpEJ>K"l mnTX were read upon the first day of the festival in Italy (Rome), Greece (Romania), Germany, Poland, Lorraine, and probably also in France. Later these were generally displaced by the Azharot

duced; but they

all



nirijn nriN, but retained their places in

Rome and

Azharot

Greece, though not in the first edition of the Mahzor Romania. In the German and Polish ritual the Azharot were postponed until the second day while in France they were completely displaced by the Azharot of Elijah ha-Zaken. The ]"6ron HflN is the form retained in the German and Polish ritual for the first day of the festival and in the first edition of the Mahzor Romania in Rome only the first " Alphabet The whole of it was is used on the second day. there read in former times on the Sabbath before the festival, but later on was displaced by Gabirol's Azharot. Saadia's compositions are contained in his " Siddur " and also in the siddur of Solomon Sigelmessi. Gabirol's Azharot were customarily read in Spain, Provence, Avignon, Palestine, Fez, Yemen, and to some extent in Algiers, and are found in the liturgy of the second day of the festival in the first edition of the Mahzor Romania. Albargeloni's Azharot are contained in the rituals of Constantine, Tlemcen, Tunis, Morocco (for the afternoon service), Algiers, and Oran those of Elijah ha-Zaken in France The Azharot of Isaac and, earlier, in Germany. Kimhi are set down in the Mahzor Carpentras (Amsterdam, 1759) for the afternoon service, as they were also in Avignon. Tchelebi's Azharot and those of Tamarand Egozi are printed in the Mahzor Romania, and those of Elijah Adeni, strangely enough, in the Mahzor Cochin (China) for the Eighth Day of Solemn Assembly ("Shemini 'Azeret "). Owing to their condensed style and didactic form, it is not to be wondered at that the Azharot required commentaries; indeed, some of the later authors themselves recognized this need and





Com-

supplied them



as, for instance,

Tamar

mentaries. aud Joshua Benveniste. Explanations of the Azharot are therefore to be found in such Mahzors as aim at giving a commentary, and also separately in many varieties, of which a few may be mentioned here. Azharot )V£>N"I were commented upon by Eleazar b. Nathan and Samuel Albargeloni's Azharot were simib. Kalonymus. larly dealt with by Moses Muesi (HB>D "W) and Saul Gabirol's Azhaibn Musa ha-Kohen ("prilXD 3TIJ). rot, however, have always been favorite subjects for commentation thus, Moses ibn Tibbon, Isaac Kimhi,

Todros, Simon b. Zemach Duran (JTpin "lilt), Joseph ha-Lo'ez (Barbaro), Moses Pesante or Pisanti (ITlVD 1J), Jacob (Israel) Hagis (rtan ^Hfi), Saul Isaac

b.

Musa ha-Kohen (-prilXD DTO), Elia Benamozeg, Translations, however, are and numerous others. (On a Persian translation, see " Jewish rather rare. Quarterly Rev." x. 593, andM. Seligsohn, in "Revue Etudes Juives,"xliii. 101; concerning a Judaeo-Spanish translation of Gabirol's Azharot and Shabbethai Wita's K>S3 JITB'D, compare M. Greenbaum, "Jud.ibn

Span. Chrestomathie," pp. 37, 109.) Many commentaries on the Azharot of Elia ha-Zaken are extant in manuscript form. Besides the above-mentioned Azharot there are a

number Later Elaborations.

of poetical elaborations of the

same material, which, however, are not called Azharot, nor are they incorporated in any ritual. Some of them are

older than

proper. betical

many

of the later Azharot

The following may be enumerated in alphaorder: ^KTIIp'' rtt by Jekuthiel Susskind;