ASARELAH – One of the Asaphites appointed by David to the Temple service, according to I Chron. xxv. 2). In verse 14 the same personage appears as "Jesharelah." The readings "Asarelah" and "Jesarelah" (with s) seem preferable. The...
ASCALON – ASKELON). See Ashkelon.
ASCAMA – The name given by Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities to the laws governing their internal administration. These laws, approved and accepted as binding by the members, called in general "YeḦidim," were, for the most part,...
ASCARELLI, DEBORAH – Italian poetess, and wife of Giuseppi Ascarelli; lived at Venice at the end of the sixteenth and at the beginning of the seventeenth century.As early as 1560 Deborah was known in Rome as a poetess of talent. She translated into...
ASCARELLI, MOSES VITA (JEHIEL) – Physician at Rome; died Dec. 11, 1889. He received his early education at the Talmud Torah in that city, and later studied medicine at the University of Rome. During the cholera epidemic in 1867 he distinguished himself by his...
ASCARI – Rabbi and author of the sixteenth century; styled by Azulai "Ir weḲaddish" (Angel and Saint); a pupil of R. Joseph Sagis, the colleague of Joseph Caro. He lived at Safed.Ascari was a founder of the "Sukkat Shalom" (Tabernacle of...
ASCENSION – The translation to heaven of a few chosen ones, either to remain there in lieu of dying, or merely to receive revelations and then to return to earth. The ascensions of Enoch (Gen. v. 24) and Elijah (II Kings ii 11) were of the...
ASCENSION OF ISAIAH – See Isaiah, Ascension of.
ASCETICISM – A term derived from the Greek verb ἀσκέω, meaning "to practise strenuously," "to exercise." Athletes were therefore said to go through ascetic training, and to be ascetics. In this usage the twofold application—to the mode of...
ASCETICS – Shammaites and Hillelites. While the dominant note of Judaism is optimism, faith in a God who delights in the happiness of His creatures and expects their grateful appreciation of His bounties—see Abstinence—there have,...
ASCH, ABRAHAM – German rabbi and author; born at Posen; officiated as rabbi of Zell toward the end of the eighteenth century. He descended from a learned family which traced its pedigree to Meïr of Lublin. His father, Joseph, was rabbi of...
ASCHAFFENBURG – Important town on the right bank of the Main in Bavaria. Jews in Aschaffenburg are first mentioned in the thirteenth century, when reference is made to a Rabbi Abraham of Aschaffenburg. In the reports of the persecution which...
ASCHE, TOBIAH BEN EZEKIEL – German Talmudist; rabbi of Zempelburg at the beginning of the nineteenth century. His "'Eṭ Barzel" (Iron Pen) is an explanation of halakic legal themes, and was published posthumously (Berlin, 1832) by his son Gershon, rabbi of...
ASCHENBURG, SIMON B. ISAAC HA-LEVI – Talmudic scholar; lived at Frankfort-on-the-Main, later at Jerusalem, at which latter place he died about 1598. He was the author of a useful supercommentary upon Rashi's Pentateuch commentary entitled "Debeḳ Ṭob" (A Good Bond)....
ASCHER, ANTON – German actor; born at Dresden July 15, 1820; died in Meran April 24, 1885. Trained for the stage by Ludwig Tieck, he made his début in 1838 at Hainichen, Saxony, playing the same year also at Merssen, Bautzen, and Zittau. In...
ASCHER, BENJAMIN HENRY – Hebrew scholar and author; born in 1812 at Peisern (grand duchy of Posen); died Feb. 24, 1893, in London. His father, a corn-merchant, gave his son a careful religious and secular education. In 1840 Ascher went to England, where...
ASCHER, JOSEPH – Composer and pianist; born at Groningen, Holland, June 4, 1829; died in London, June 20, 1869. He was a son of Simon Ascher, reader of the Great Synagogue, London, and studied music under Moscheles, whom he followed to the...
ASCHER, SAUL – German author and translator; born at Berlin Feb. 8, 1767; died there Dec. 8, 1822. He began his literary career as an advocate of Jewish emancipation; gradually extending his activities to general topics, chiefly historical,...
ASCHER, SIMON – azan; born in Holland, 1789; died at London December, 1872. He was reader and cantor of the Great Synagogue, London, for a period of thirty-seven years. With the aid of Mombach, the well-known composer, he may be said to have...
ASCHIAN – See Ashyan.
ASCOLI, DAVID D' – Italian writer; lived about the middle of the sixteenth century. He wasthe author of "Apologia Hebræorum," published at Strasburg in 1559, in which he protested against the decree of Pius IV. commanding all Jews in Catholic...
ASCOLI, GIULIO – Italian mathematician; born in Triest Nov. 20, 1843; died in Pisa. Reared in a city with a large Italian-speaking population, a natural inclination drew young Ascoli to Milan, where, from 1874 until 1879, he taught mathematics...
ASCOLI, GRAZIADIO ISAIAH – First Work. Italian philologist; born July 16, 1829, at Göritz, Austria. His father, who had made a fortune in the manufacture of paper, died while Graziadio was an infant. Graziadio devoted himself at an early age to the study...
ASCOLI, JACOB BEN ABRAHAM ROFE – Physician and payyeṭan; lived at Camerino, Italy, perhaps at Ascoli, in the second half of the fifteenth century. Two Reshuts for Nishmat of his are printed in the MaḦzor Romania—(1) For the Day of Atonement; , etc. ("They will...
ASEFAH – Technical term for the meetings of the members of the Jewish communities of Poland and Lithuania. In cases of importance, the director of the "kahal" ("parnes Ḧodesh") gave the order to the "shammash" of the "kahal-stübel" (the...