Bezalel Ashkenazi - Biography

Biography

Ashkenazi was one of the leading Oriental Talmudists and rabbis of his day. He was probably born in Palestine. Descended from a family of German scholars, the greater part of his life was spent in Egypt 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 he counted among his pupils such men as Isaac Luria and Solomon Adeni. The reputation of Ashkenazi in Egypt was so great that he could take it upon himself to 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 point whether scholars not engaged in business should contribute to the taxes paid by the Jewish community to the pasha, and to what extent, Ashkenazi, together with several other rabbis, took the stand that Jewish scholars, being usually impelled by love alone to emigrate to Palestine, and being scarcely able to support themselves, should be relieved from all taxes.

In the same year, Ashkenazi himself traveled to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem, where he was recognized as their chief by both the Sephardim and the Ashkenazim. 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. The German Jews, who ordinarily did not recognize the jurisdiction of the Sephardim, and who, being largely scholars, refused to pay the Jews' tax, nevertheless bowed to Ashkenazi's authority. The Ashkenazim had to contribute to the Jews' tax one-sixth of the sum that was sent from Europe for their support (see Halukka); otherwise the Sephardim, who were on the verge of penury, could not have remained in Jerusalem under the merciless exploitation of the Turkish pashas. This peaceable arrangement between the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim was due solely to the personal influence of Ashkenazi; for immediately upon his death the Ashkenazim refused to keep their pledge.