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376 Azulai '

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Azzut Pauim

Azulai's scholarship made him so famous that in 1755 he was chosen as meshullah (emissary), an honor bestowed on such men only as were, by their learning, well fitted to represent the Holy Land in Europe, where the people looked upon a Palestinian rabbi as a model of learning and piety. He traveled in this capacity through Italy, Prance, Germany, and Holland. On his return to Palestine he settled in Hebron, where his ancestor Abraham Azulai (No. 2)

had

first

settled

when he came

Jo-

to Palestine.

seph David Sinzheim, in a eulogy on Azulai, states that the latter left Palestine three times on his missions, in 1755, 1770, and 1781. His diary and his other works are, however, not clear on this point. In 1755 he was in Germany, in 1764 in Egypt, and in the year 1773 in Tunis, Morocco, and Italy, in which latter country he seems to have remained until 1777, most probably occupied with the printing of the first part of his biographical dictionary, " Shem ha-Gedolim," Leghorn, 1774, and with his notes on the Shulhan 'Aruk, entitled "Birke Yosef," Leghorn, 177476. In 1777 he was in Prance, and in 1778 in Holland. On October 28 of the latter year he married, in Pisa, his second wife, Rachel his first wife, Sarah, had died in 1773. Noting this event in his diary, he adds the wish that he may be permitted to return to Palestine. This wish seems not to have been realized. At all events he remained in Leghorn, occupied with the publication of his works. Azulai's literary activity is of an astonishing breadth. It embraces every department of rabbinical literature: exegesis, homiletics, casuistry, Cab;

ala, liturgies,

and

literary history.

The

last

is,

as

876

In his diary he notes all the cabalistic recin manuscripts, and gives many instances of the miraculous effects of His Super- his prayers. In his religious attitude he is a strict rigorist. He discusses stition. the question of early burial, which he recommends chiefly on the ground of the cabalistic doctrine that the delay of burial occasions suffering to the dead, and actually writes " If it should happen in one case out of ten thousand that one would be buried alive, this would not be the slightest sin for it was so foreordained in order to avoid the evil general.

ipes

found by him



that would result to the world from this man or his posterity" ("Hayyim Sha'al," i. 25). Azulai's exegetical works are of the same character, being filled with interpretations of numerals and Instances of this kind are of casuistic methods.

found on every page of his "Homat Anak " (Wall Made by a Plumb-Line Amos vii. 7) and in his commentary to the Psalms, entitled "Yosef Tehillot" (To Add Praise), Leghorn, 1794. As a writer Azulai was most prolific. The list of his works, compiled by Benjacob, runs to seventyone items but some are named twice, because they have two titles, and some are only



His Works,

small treatises. Still, his activity was marvelous. The veneration bestowed upon him by his contemporaries was that given to a saint. He reports in his diary that when he learned in Tunis of the death of his first wife, he kept it secret, because the people would have forced him Legends printed in the appendix to marry at once. to his diary, and others found in Walden's "Shem

has already been stated, the only department in which he was original. A voracious reader, he noted all historical references and on his travels he visited the famous libraries of Italy and Prance, where he examined the Hebrew manuscripts. His notes were published in four booklets, comprising two sections, under the titles " Shem ha-Gedolim " (The Name of the Great Ones), containing

ha-Gedolim he-Hadash " (compare also " Ma'aseh Nora," pp. 7-16, Podgoritza, 1899), prove the great respect in which he was held. Even to-day a great many Oriental and Polish Jews undertake pilgrimages to his grave or send letters to be deposited

the names of authors, and " Wa'ad la-Hakamim (Assembly of the Wise), containing the titles of works. They were, however, so unsystematically arranged that the mass of facts contained therein was of little value until Isaac Benjacob, in 1852, published the work systematically arranged, with copious cross-references. This treatise has established for Azulai a lasting place in Jewish literature. It contains data that might His otherwise have been lost, and it proves " Shem ha- the author to have had a critical mind, Gedolim." except when touching cabalistic doc-

Bibliography



trines. By sound scientific methods he investigated the question of the genuineness of

Rashi's commentary to Chronicles or to some Talmudic treatise (see " Rashi, " in " Shem ha-Gedolim "). Nevertheless he firmly believed that Hayyim Vital had drunk water from Miriam's well, and that this fact enabled him to receive, in less than two years, the whole Cabala from the lips of Isaac Luria (see "

Hayyim

Vital,

"

in "

Shem ha-Gedolim ").

The amount

of blind superstition found in his diary and other works is almost incredible in a man of such admirable critical ability and his liturgical works have greatly helped to make this superstition

there.

Azulai

left

Isaiah (No. 12).

two sons, Abraham and Raphael Of the former nothing is known.

A complete bibliographical list of his works is found in the preface to Benjacoto's edition of Sliem haGedolim, Wilna, 1852, and frequently reprinted ; Carmoly, in the edition of Shem ha-6ednlim, Frankfort-on-tbe-Main, 1843 Fuenn, Keneset Tisrael, p. 342 ; Hazan, Hama'aloi lirShelomoh, Alexandria, 1894; Walden, Shem ha-Gedolim he-Hadash, 1879 and the diary Ma'agal Tob, edited by Elijah Benamozegh, Leghorn, 1879 ; Michael, Or hdr-Hayyim,





No. 868. L. G.

5.

D.

Isaac Azulai: Noted

cabalist; lived at

He-

bron in the seventeenth century son of Abraham (No. 2). He wrote " Zera' Yizhak " (The Seed of Isaac), a cabalistic work, now lost. He died at Constantinople, presumably while traveling as an emissary for the congregations of the Holy Land. One married Benjamin Zetoi Isaac had two sisters. and was the mother of Hayyim Abraham Israel Zebi, who was rabbi in Hebron (died 1731) and the author of "Orim Gedolim" (The Great Lights) a. treatise on rabbinical law and of " Yemin Mosheh " (The Right Hand of Moses), glosses to the Shulhan 'Aruk (The Hague, 1777). The other became the wife of David Isaaci ; and their son, Abraham Isaaci (died Jan. 10, 1729), was an eminent rabbi in Jerusalem and the author of responsa entitled " Zera' Abraham " (The Seed of Abraham), 2 vols., Constantinople, 1732, and Smyrna, 1733.

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