Azariah Dei Rossi - Attitude of His Contemporaries

Attitude of His Contemporaries

Dei Rossi's followed the burgeoning scientific method of inquiry in his work and did not rely solely upon tradition. But this way of dealing with subjects which the multitude reverenced as sacred called forth many criticisms on the part of his contemporaries. Prominent among his critics were Moses Provençal of Mantua (to whom Dei Rossi had submitted his work in manuscript), Isaac Finzi of Pesaro, and David Provençal, who endeavored to defend Philo. Dei Rossi appended to some copies of the Me'or Enayim an answer to the criticisms of Moses Provençal, and a dissertation entitled Tzedek Olamim, in which latter he refuted the arguments of Isaac Finzi. Later he wrote a special work entitled Matzref la-Kesef (published by Hirsch Filipowski at Edinburgh, 1854, and included by Zunz in the Vilna edition of the "Me'or"), in which he defended his "Yeme 'Olam" against its critics. Dei Rossi, however, also had to contend with those who considered his "Me'or 'Enayim" as a heretical work. Joseph Caro commissioned Elisha Gallico to draw up a decree to be distributed among all Jews, ordering that the "Me'or 'Enayim" be burned. But, Joseph Caro dying before it was ready for him to sign, the decree was not promulgated, and the rabbis of Mantua contented themselves with forbidding the reading of the work by Jews under twenty-five years of age.

The "Me'or 'Enayim" attracted the attention of many Christian Hebraists, who translated parts of it into Latin.

Dei Rossi was the author of a collection of poems (Venice, n.d.), among which are several of a liturgical character.

• Jacobs, Joseph and Isaac Broydé. "Ross, Azariah ben Moses dei". Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906, which cites the following bibliography:

• Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi, Dizionario, p. 280;
• Zunz, in Kerem Ḥemed, v. 131-138, vii. 119-124;
• Rapoport, ib. v. 159-162;
• Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 747;
• Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten, iii. 123;
• Grätz, Gesch. ix. 405 et seq.;
• Zunz, Literaturgeschichte, p. 417;
• Ginsburg, Levita's Massoreth ha-Massoreth, p. 52.