Bezalel ben Abraham Ashkenazi () ( 1520 – 1592) was a
rabbi
A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
and
talmudist
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
who lived in
Ottoman Israel during the 16th century. He is best known as the author of the ''Shitah Mekubetzet'', a commentary on the Talmud. Among his disciples were
Isaac Luria
Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi Luria (; #FINE_2003, Fine 2003, p24/ref>July 25, 1572), commonly known in Jewish religious circles as Ha'ari, Ha'ari Hakadosh or Arizal, was a leading rabbi and Jewish mysticism, Jewish mystic in the community of Saf ...
and
Solomon Adeni.
Biography
Ashkenazi was one of the leading Eastern Talmudists and rabbis of his day. He was probably born in the indigienous Land of Israel Descended from a family of German scholars, most of his life was spent in
Egypt Eyalet
Ottoman Egypt was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517), conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottomans in 1517. The Ottomans administered Egypt as a Eyalet, province (''eyalet'') of their empir ...
, where he received his Talmudic education from
David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra and
Israel de Curial. During the lifetime of his teachers, Ashkenazi was regarded as one of the highest authorities in the Orient, and counted Isaac Luria and
Solomon Adeni among his pupils. In Egypt his reputation was such that he could abrogate the dignity of the
nagid, which had existed for centuries and had gradually deteriorated into an arbitrary aristocratic privilege. When, in 1587, a dispute occurred in Jerusalem over the extent to which scholars not engaged in business should contribute to the taxes paid by the Jewish community to the
pasha
Pasha (; ; ) was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignitary, dignitaries, and others. ''Pasha'' was also one of the highest titles in the 20th-century Kingdom of ...
, Ashkenazi, together with several other rabbis, took the stand that Jewish scholars, being usually impelled by love alone to emigrate to the Land of Israel, and being scarcely able to support themselves, should be relieved from all taxes.
In the same year, Ashkenazi travelled to the Land of Israel, settling in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, where he was recognized as important by both
Sephardic
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
and
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...
communities. The conditions in Jerusalem were at this time very critical; and it was mainly due to Ashkenazi's influence that the congregations of the city were not dissolved.
German Jews
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...
, who normally did not recognize the jurisdiction of the Sephardim and who, being largely scholars, refused to pay the Jews' tax, nevertheless recognized Ashkenazi's authority. However this arrangement between the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim seems to have been solely due to the personal influence of Ashkenazi; asvit ended immediately after his death.
Works
''Shitah Mekubezet''
Ashkenazi is known principally as the author of ''Shitah Mekubezet'' (, ''Gathered Interpretation''). This work, as its title indicates, is a collection of
glosses on the greater part of the Talmud, in the style of the ''
Tosafot
The Tosafot, Tosafos or Tosfot () are Middle Ages, medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes.
The authors o ...
'', including much original and foreign material. The great value of the ''Shitah'' lies principally in the fact that it contains numerous excerpts from Talmudic commentaries which have not otherwise been preserved.
Ashkenazi himself wrote only short marginal annotations in his edition of the Talmud.
Solomon Adeni, his student, edited the annotations into the commentary to
Kodashim
150px, Pidyon haben
Kodashim () is the fifth of the six orders, or major divisions, of the Mishnah, Tosefta and the Talmud, and deals largely with the services within the Temple in Jerusalem, its maintenance and design, the ''korbanot'', or sa ...
as it exists today (both versions), including a vast quantity of original material.
''Shitah Mekubezet'' contains expositions of the Talmud taken from the works of the Spaniards
Nahmanides
Moses ben Nachman ( ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ramban (; ) and by the contemporary nickname Bonastruc ça Porta (; l ...
,
ben Adret, and
Yom-Tov of Seville, and from those of the Frenchmen
Abraham ben David
Abraham ben David ( – 27 November 1198), also known by the abbreviation RABaD (for ''Rabbeinu'' Abraham ben David) Ravad or RABaD III, was a Provençal ḥakham, an important commentator on the Talmud, ''Sefer Halachot'' of Isaac Alfasi, an ...
,
Baruch ben Samuel
Baruch ben Samuel (died April 25, 1221), also called Baruch of Mainz to distinguish him from Baruch ben Isaac, was a Talmudist and prolific '' payyeṭan'', who flourished in Mainz at the beginning of the thirteenth century.
Writings
He was a pu ...
,
Isaac of Chinon
Isaac ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in which he is the son o ...
, etc. The study of the ''Shitah'' is particularly valuable for understanding the
Tosafists
Tosafists were rabbis of France, Germany, Bohemia and Austria, who lived from the 12th to the mid-15th centuries, in the period of Rishonim. The Tosafists composed critical and explanatory glosses (questions, notes, interpretations, rulings and ...
, because the work contains some of the older and unedited ''Tosafot''; besides, glosses of
Asher ben Jehiel
Asher ben Jehiel (, or Asher ben Yechiel, sometimes Asheri) (1250 or 1259 – 1327) was an eminent rabbi and Talmudist best known for his abstract of Talmudic law. He is often referred to as Rabbenu Asher, “our Rabbi Asher” or by the Hebrew ...
and of the disciples of
Perez ben Elijah Perez ben Elijah of Corbeil (died about 1295) was a French tosafist, son of the Talmudist Elijah of Tours. In Talmudic literature he is designated by the abbreviations RaP (= Rabbeinu Perez), RaPaSh (= Rabbeinu Perez, may he live), and MaHaRPaSh ( ...
are partly contained in it.
Other works
Ashkenazi is also the author of a
collection of responsa, which appeared after his death (Venice, 1595).
His ''Methodology of the Talmud,'' and his marginal notes to the
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...
, which were still extant at the time of
Chaim Joseph David Azulai
Haim Yosef David Azulai ben Yitzhak Zerachia (; 1724 – 1 March 1806), commonly known as the Hida (also spelled Chida, the acronym of his name, ), was a Jerusalem born rabbi, rabbinical scholar, a noted bibliophile, and a pioneer in the publica ...
, are preserved in manuscript at Jerusalem.
References
Its bibliography:
Chaim Azulai, ''Shem ha-Gedolim,'' ed. Benjacob, i.36;
David Conforte, ''Kore ha-Dorot'' (see index in Cassel ed.); Frumkin, ''Eben Shemuel,'' pp. 67 et seq., 125 et seq., Vilna, 1874;
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* he He ..., a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name
* Michael (bishop elect)">Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam ...
, ''Or ha-Chaim'', No. 612;
Luncz, in ''Jerusalem,'' ii.23-27; Responsa of
Yom-Tov Zahalon, No. 160.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashkenazi, Bezalel
16th-century rabbis from the Ottoman Empire
Rabbis in Ottoman Palestine
Authors of works on the Talmud
Authors of books on Jewish law
1520 births
1590s deaths
Year of death uncertain
Shelichei derabonan (rabbis)