ASHER BEN ḤAYYIM OF MONZON:

Spanish liturgist of the fourteenth century. He was the author of a book entitled "Ha-Pardes" (Paradise), the ten sections of which are devoted to an exhaustive discussion of the benedictions, the results being epitomized in a single extract entitled "Terumot ha-Pardes" (The Heave-Offerings of Paradise). Azulai saw the manuscript in Italy, and made extracts from it, which he afterward published in his commentary "Shiyure Berakah" to the ShulḦan 'Aruk, OraḦ Ḥayyim. The manuscript in question was probably identical with that now preserved in the Bodleian Library. The latest authority cited in it is Yom-Ṭob b. Abraham of Seville.

Bibliography:
  • Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, ed. Wilna, ii. 61;
  • Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, p. 540;
  • Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS. No. 799;
  • Zunz, Ritus, p. 30.
L. G.
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