Ashkenazi, Joseph Edels

Palestinian commentator and cabalist; lived at the beginning of the nineteenth century at Jerusalem and Padua; died at Safed. He was sent as European agent ("meshullaḦ") from Palestine to collect money for the Palestinian poor. On his travels he remained at Padua, Italy, for a certain time, where he became the teacher of Mordecai Samuel Ghirondi. According to this source, Ashkenazi was a prolific commentator of Biblical and Talmudical subjects, but published nothing beyond a small commentary on the "Sefer Yeẓirah," to which he appended many of his observations on Bible and Talmud.

Bibliography:

  * Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 212.



L. G. M. B.