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Jacob ben Asher

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Jacob ben Asher
 
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(born 1269?, Cologne? — died 1340?, Toledo, Castile) Jewish legal scholar. He emigrated to Spain with his family in 1303, and his father became chief rabbi in Toledo. Jacob is believed to have made his living as a moneylender. He divided Jewish law into categories by subject, producing a codification known as Tur, which became a popular Jewish theological work of the 15th century. The basis for many rabbinic decisions, it was considered standard until superseded by the work of Joseph ben Ephraim Karo in the 16th century.

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Encyclopedia of Judaism: Jacob Ben Asher
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(known also as Ba'al ha-Turim; c. 1270-1340). Codifier and Bible commentator. He was the son of Asher Ben Jehiel, who taught him Halakhah while they were still in Germany. After their flight to Spain in 1303, Jacob lived first in Barcelona and then in Toledo. Preferring study to communal honors, he never accepted a rabbinical position and lived in great poverty. His first important work, Kitsur Piské ha-Rosh ("Abridgment of the Decisions of Rabbi Asher"), was a digest of his father's Talmud commentary, giving only the halakhic decision and omitting the discussion.

The name of Jacob ben Asher is chiefly associated, however, with the great code entitled Arba'ah Turim ("Four Rows"; cf. Ex. 28:17), popularly known as "the Tur." Based largely on the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, but omitting all laws that do not apply when the Temple is not in existence, it is divided into four parts ("rows") comprising some 1,700 chapters in all and embracing the whole of Jewish law. Written in a clear and simple style, and taking account of both the Franco-German and the Spanish rabbinic traditions, this code became widely authoritative. It provided Joseph Caro with the substructure for his Bet Yosef and Shulḥan Arukh, while commentaries on the Tur were written by Jacob Ibn Ḥabib, Moses Isserles, Joel Serkes, and David Ben Samuel Ha-Levi.

Earlier Bible scholarship was utilized in Jacob ben Asher's Torah commentary. The prefaces to each section, containing fanciful explanations based on Gematria and notarikon (interpreting a word by using each letter as the initial of other words), soon became the most popular feature of this work and they are printed in most editions of the Pentateuch under the title Ba'al ha-Turim.

 
Wikipedia: Jacob ben Asher
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Rabbinical Eras

Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, in Hebrew Ya'akov ben Asher, was born in Cologne, Germany in about 1269 and died in Toledo, Spain in about 1343. [1][2])

He was an influential Medieval rabbinic authority. He is often referred to as the Baal ha-Turim ("Master of the Turim (Rows)"), after his main work in halakha (Jewish law), the Arba'ah Turim, "Four Rows." The work was divided into 4 sections, each called a "tur," alluding to the rows of jewels on the High Priest's breastplate. He was the third son of the Rabbi Asher ben Jehiel (known as the "Rosh"), a German-born Rabbi who moved to Spain. Besides his father, who was his principal teacher, Jacob quotes very often in the Turim his elder brother Jehiel; once his brother Judah (see Tur Orach Chaim, § 417), and once his uncle R. Chaim(ib. § 49). According to many, Jacob moved to Spain with his father and was not born there.

Some say Jacob succeeded his father as the rabbi of the Jewish community of Toledo (Zacuto), while others say his brother Judah ben Asher did. Two of his brothers (Jehiel and Judah) were also rabbis of different communities in Spain. He lived in abject poverty most of his life, and is said to have fallen ill and died with his comrades on the island of Chios, Greece, whilst travelling[3].

Works

  • Arba'ah Turim, one of the most important halachic books of all times.
  • Sefer ha-Remazim, or "Kitzur Piske ha-Rosh" (Constantinople, 1575), an abridgment of his father's compendium of the Talmud, in which he condensed his father's decisions, omitting the casuistry.
  • Rimze Ba'al ha-Turim (Constantinople, 1500), a commentary on the Pentateuch, which is printed in virtually all Jewish editions of the Pentateuch. This concise commentary consists of mystical and symbolical references in the Torah text (see Masoretic text), often using gematria and acronyms as well as other occurrences of particular words elsewhere in the Torah.
  • Perush Al ha-Torah, a less known commentary on the Pentateuch (Zolkiev, 1806), taken mainly from Nachmanides, but without his cabalistic and philosophical interpretations. Jacob quotes many other commentators, among them Saadia Gaon, Rashi, Joseph Dara and Abraham ibn Ezra.

References

  1. ^ Translated from Hebrew biography in Bar Ilan CD-ROM
  2. ^ Goldin, Hyman E. Kitzur Shulchan Aruch - Code of Jewish Law, Forward to the New Edition. (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1961)
  3. ^ The Sephardic Community of Chios

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