ASHKENAZI, JOSEPH EDELS:

By: Louis Ginzberg, Moses Beer

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.

L. G. M. B.