Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/416

374 Azriel

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Azulai

Azriel, iu order to solve the problem of creation, has recourse to the theory of emanation,

AZRIEL

either.

The

universe, with all its multifarious manifestations, was latent in the essence of the En-Sof, in

which, notwithstanding its infinite variety, it formed an absolute unit, just like the various sparks and colors that proceed from the one and indivisible flame potential in the coal. The act of creation did not consist in producing an absolutely new thing; it was merely a transformation of potential existence into realized existence. Thus there was really no creation, but an efflux (see Azilut). The effluence was effectuated through successive gradations from the intellectual world to the material, from the indefinite to the definite. This material world, being limited and not perfect, could not proceed directly from the En-Sof; neither could it be independent

Him

for in that case



He would

be imperfect.

There must have been, therefore, intermediaries between the En-Sof and the material world and these intermediaries were the Ten Sefirot. The first Sefirah was latent in the En-Sof as a dynamic force then the second Sefirah emanated as a substratum for the intellectual world; afterward the other Sefirot emanated, forming the moral, the material, and the natBut this fact of emanation does not ural worlds. imply a prius or a ponterius or a gradation in the En-Sof a candle, the flame of which is capable of igniting an indefinite number of lights, although,



—

in itself,

it is

a unit.

The

Sefirot,

according to their

nature, are divided into three groups: the three superior forming the world of thought, the next three the world of soul, the last four the world of corporeality. They all depend upon one another, being

Each of them has emanating and recalled by Azriel not

united like links to the first one. a positive and a passive quality

—

The first Sefirah is Keter, as the later cabalists call it, but Rum Ma'alah. Griitz (I.e.) thinks that Azriel meant by that term Ibn Gabirol's "Will" ("Hefez ")— the highest dynamic force of the Deity. Indeed, Azriel's contemporary, Jacob ben Sheshet, called the first Sefirah The second and third Sefirah Razon (" Will "). were Hokmah and Binah; the fourth, fifth, and sixth, Hesed, Pahad, and Tiferet; the seventh, ceiving.

See Asiike-

Moses Levi.

b.

AZRIEL BEN MOSES MESHEL, OF WIL-

which he develops as follows:

of

MOSES HA-LEVI.

B.

Azriel

nazi,

374

NA

Grammarian lived at the end of the seventeenth and at the beginning of the eighteenth cenAbout 1700 he left his native town, Wilna, tury. and settled with his family at Frankfort-on-theMain. There he published, in 1704, in collaboration with his son Elijah, a prayer-book entitled "Derek Siah ha-Sadeh " (The Way of the Plant of the Field Gen. ii. 5), according to the method of Shabbethai Sofer of Przemysl, with a commentary, "Mikra Kodesh " (Holy Reading), containing the rules for punctuation and reading. A second edition of this prayer-book, with a German introduction, refuting the criticisms of Solomon Hanau on the first edition, was published by Azriel at Berlin in 1713, and a third at Wilhelmsdorf in 1721. He published also " Pilpula Harifta " (Keen Discussions), novelise on the order Nezikin by Yom-Tob





Lipmann Heller; and "Ma'amadot," recitations after the reading of the Psalms, by Menahem Lonzano, with additions of his own. Bibliography



Fuenn, Kirmih Ne'emanah,

p. 102.

t.

I.

AZRIEL

YEHIEL ASCOLI.

B.

Br.

See Tra-

botta Family.

AZRIKAM

1 Ancestor of a Levite residing Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah (Neh. xi. 15 = I Chron. ix. 14). 2. Son of Neariah, occurring in the list of the descendants of David (I Chron. iii. 33). 3. Son of Azel in the genealogical list of Benjamin, descended from Saul (I Chron. viii. 38 =

.

in

ix. 44).

4. Governor of the palace under Ahaz, king of Judah; he was killed by Zichri, an Ephraimite (II

Chron. xxviii.

j.

7).

G. B. L.

jr.

AZTJBAH:

Daughter of Shilhi and mother of Jeboshaphat, king of Judah (I Kings xxii. 42 = 1.

II Chron. xx. 31).

2. Wife of Caleb, the son of Hezron (I Chron.

ii.

18, 19). ,i.

G. B. L.

jr.

AZUBIB, JOSEPH

B.

NEHORAI

Hod, and Yesod 'Olam; These Ten Sefirot were put

Rabbi at At Algiers; died at Blida, Algeria, January, 1794. an early age he assisted his father in his duties as rabbi of Algiers; and at the death of the latter succeeded him. He published a work under the title

The whole system, with the exception of the theory of the Sefirot, is derived from Ibn Gabirol's "Mekor Hayyim," which Azriel imitated, even as to its form, in arranging his commentary upon the Ten Sefirot, by putting it into questions and answers as Azriel, however, had the merit of Gabirol did. affording some guidance in the labyrinth of mysti-

containing sermons preceded by a preface written by the bibliographer Azulai (Leghorn, 1790). Azubib signed one of the approbations attached to the work " Berit Abraham " of Abraham ben Raphael Jacob Bush'arah, Leghorn, 1791.

ninth, Nezah,

eighth, and and the tenth, Zedek. by Azriel into correspondence to the ten parts of the human organism and to the ten different refractions

of light.

cism. Jellinek, Beitrikjc zur Qeseh tier Kabbala, i.81-66,ii.32; Ehrenpreis, Die Entwicttelunu ilcr Emanatitmslehre in der Kuhhitln im Dreizehntcti Jnhrhumlert, pp. 23rts«/.; Gratz, Grxcli.<lcr.Tntlrn,vi. 447-45'!; Landauer, in Literaturblatt des Orients, vi. 196; Myer, Qabhalab, pp. 284 ft acq. ; Steinschneider, Cat. Budl. col. 755 ; Michael, Or lm-Hamiim, No. 1151; Bloch, Die Jlhlisclie Mi/xtik unit Kahbatah, in Winter and Wiinsche, Jild. Literatur, iii. 261,

Bibliography:

262.

k.

I.

Br.

"

Yamim Ahadim " (Some Days),

for all the feasts

Bibliography



Bloch, Inseriptions Tumidaires des Anciens Cimetieres Israelites iVAlger, pp. 83-85.

g.

I.

AZUBIB, at Algiers;

NEHORAI

B.

died October, 1785.

Rabbi He composed sev-

eral prayers for the anniversary instituted

community

in

commemoration

Br.

SAADIA:

by

the

of the repulse of

O'Reilly's expedition against Algiers in 1775. Some Arabic poems of his figure in the collection " Shibhe