Azriel Ben Moses Meshel, Of Wilna

Grammarian; lived at the end of the seventeenth and at the beginning of the eighteenth century. About 1700 he left his native town, Wilna, and settled with his family at Frankfort-on-the-Main. There he published, in 1704, in collaboration with his son Elijah, a prayer-book entitled "Derek Siaḥ ha-Sadeh" (The Way of the Plant of the Field; Gen. ii. 5), according to the method of Shabbethai Sofer of Przemysl, with a commentary, "Miḳra Ḳodesh" (Holy Reading), containing the rules for punctuation and reading. A second edition of this prayer-book, with a German introduction, refuting the criticisms of Solomon Hanau on the first edition, was published by Azriel at Berlin in 1713, and a third at Wilhelmsdorf in 1721.

He published also: "Pilpula Ḥarifta" (Keen Discussions), novellæ on the order Neziḳin by Yom-Ṭob Lipmann Heller; and "Ma'amadot," recitations after the reading of the Psalms, by Menahem Lonzano, with additions of his own.

Bibliography:

  * Fuenn, Ḳiryah Ne'emanah, p. 102.



T. I. Br.