Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/417

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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Elohim " (God's Praises), p. 173, published at Oran. Azubib wrote also a short commentary on the " Ker-

—

"

obez

collection of hymns contained in the ritual of Algiers, and published at Leghorn. Azubib was celebrated for his disinterestedness. According to Loeb (" Rev. Et. Juives," i. 74) the name 3<3tfN is the same as "a^K-

Bibliography



Blocli,

Cimetieres Israelites Bud!, eols. 399, 2059.

Inscriptions Tumulaires des Anciens

& Alger, pp. 66-68



Steinschneider, Cat.

g.

I.

Br.

AZULAI, AZtTLAY A family

descended from Spanish exiles who, after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, settled in the city of Fez, Morocco. Hayyim Joseph David Azulai (see No. 4) derives the family name from the initials of the He:

n^m

brew words mp' t6

nit

("They

riEJ>K

shall

not take a woman that is a harlot, or profane, " Lev. xxi. 7). This derivation, however, is not at all probable and it is to be presumed that the name refers to a locality in Morocco or in Spain. The following genealogical tree gives the principal members of the family (1) Abraham

(9)

(2)

Mordeeai

Abraham

ham Berak of

Isaac

(8) Isaiah (died 1732)

(7) Isaac (4)

(Abraham

Israel Zebi,

Daughter, married David Isaaci

(Abraham

Isaaci,

died 1729)

Zerahiah (died 1765)

Hayyim Joseph David

Another

1685.

"Ma'asse Hosheb " (Cunning Work), and "Kenaf Renanim" (Peacock's Wing). Of the numerous manuscripts that he left and that were in the hands of his descendant, Hayyim Joseph

David (No. 4), some are still extant in various libraries. Only one was published, a cabalistic commentary on the Bible, under the title " Ba'ale Berit Abraham " (Abraham's Confederates see Gen. xiv. 13), Wilna, 1873. His most popular work, "Hesed leAbraham," referred to above, is a cabalistic treatise with an introduction, iTnCil pN(" The Cornerstone "; see Talmud Yoma 534), and is divided into seven

" fountains " (see Zech. iii. 9), each fountain being subdivided into a number of " streams. " The contents of the work are hardly different from the average vagaries found in cabalistic books, as evidenced by the following specimen from the fifth fountain, twenty-fourth stream, p. 57d, of the Amsterdam



'

died 1731)

Amsterdam,

Gorice, in

published in Sulzbach in the same year, seems to be a reprint, although Steinschneider, in "Cat. Bodl." col. 666, thinks the reverse. Azulai's commentary on the Zohar, " Zohore Hammah " (Rays of the Sun), was printed in Venice, 1654. He also wrote: "Or ha-Lebanah" (Light of the Moon),

edition " On the mystery of metempsychosis and its details Know that God will not subject the soul of the wicked to more than

(died 1643)

Daughter, married Benjamin Zebi

Azulai

edition,

k

Lo, all these things doth God work twice, yea thrice, with a man ' (Job xxxiii. 29) Which means, He makes him appear twice and thrice in a human incarnation; but the fourth time he is incarnated as a clean

three migrations (5)

Azriel



for

it is

written,

.

animal. And when a man offers a sacrifice, God will, by miraculous intervention, make him select an animal that is an incarnation of a human being. Then will the sacrifice be doubly profitable to the one that oilers it and to the soul imprisoned in the brute. For with the smoke of the sacrifice the soul ascends heavenward and attains its original purity. Thus is explained the mystery involved in the words, O Lord, thou preservest man and beast' (Ps. xxxvi. 7 [R. V. 6])." Bibliography: Azulai, Shem lia-Gedrfim, s.v.; Benjacob, Ozar ha-Sefarlm, p. 198 Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, i. 67 Michael, Or ha-Haynim, p. 12.

(died 1807)

l

Abraham

(12)

Raphael Isaiah

Daughter, married

Abraham Pardo



I

(10)

Moses

(6) Isaac Leonini Azulai (died 1840)

(Grandson, Moses Pardo, died 1888)

3.

Abraham

cabalist"



I

Morocco supposed



I

Tom-Tob Bondy

Moses

Vital

(died 1898)

I

I

I

Raphael

Dayid

I

Rachel

Isaac

Leon

Doris

Bella

(living in London, 1901)

Azulai, called "the illustrious Rabbi and author born in the city of died there about 1745. He was popularly

to possess miraculous powers. He is the author of a Hebrew work upon the Cabala, " Mikdash Melek," a commentary upon the Zohar.

Bibliography:

Azulai, Shemlra-Ordnlim,

s.v.

4. Hayyim Joseph David Azulai Son of Isaac Zerahiah (No. 7) one of the most prolific of rabbinic authors in the eighteenth century, and a pioneer writer on the history of rabbinical literature; born in Jerusalem about 1724; died at Leghorn March 21, 1807. He studied under Isaac ha-Kohen Rapoport, Jonah Nabon, and Hayyim ibn 'Attar. While in general a type of the Oriental rabbi of his age, a strict Talmudist, and a believer in the Cabala, his studious habits and stupendous

Abraham Azulai

Grandfather of Abraham (No. 2), who speaks of him as having lived in Fez. Cabalistic author and 2. Abraham Azulai commentator; born in Fez about 1570; died at Hebron Nov. 6, 1643. The expulsion of the Moors from Spain brought a great number of the exiles to Morocco, and these newcomers caused a civil war from which the country in general and the Jews in 1

.





particular suffered greatly.

Abraham

Azulai, in

consequence of this condition of affairs, left his home There he for Palestine and settled in Hebron. wrote a commentary on the Zohar under the title " Kirjath Arba " (City of Arba Gen. xxiii. 2). The plague of 1619 drove him from his new home; and while in Gaza, where he found refuge, he wrote his cabalistic work "Hesed le- Abraham " (Mercy to Abraham; Micah vii. 20). It was published after the author's death by Meshullam Zalman ben Abra-



His Early memory awakened Scholarship.

in

him an

interest

in the history of rabbinical literature and in its textual criticism. He accordingly began at an early age a



compilation of passages in rabbinical literature in which dialectic authors had tried to solve questions This comthat were based on chronological errors. pilation he called It

was never

"m

printed.

tbyn ("Some Oversights").