treats of all the Jewish festivals, and determines all questions that have risen, or may arise, concerning them. III. "Nashim " (women) has seven books, and seventy-one chapters; it treats on marriage and divorce, of the duties of women, and everything else peculiar to them under the Mosaic law. IV. "Nezikin" (damages) has ten books, and seventy-four chapters; it treats of all cases of injury inflicted by man or beast, and the compensation awarded in such cases; also of the Jewish courts of law, and of their various officers, and of their punishments; also of idolatry, and of the prophecies concerning the Messiah. V. "Kodashim" (holinesses) has eleven books, and ninety chapters; it treats of sacrifice, of things clean and unclean, of the temple, and other sacred things. VI. "Tahoroth" (purifications) has twelve books, and one hundred and twenty-six chapters; it treats of the cleansing and purification of all sorts of vessels, and household furniture, as well as of persons of both sexes, from all legal impurities. The Talmud is thus divided into six parts, or orders (Sedarim), subdivided into sixty-three books, or treatises (Massictoth), and five hundred and twenty-four sections, or chapters (Perakim). learn from Maimonides in the preface to his commentary on the Mishna, Order "Zerahim," was in its original form divided into four parts, written in distinct columns, each forming as it were a separate commentary on the Mishna. In col. 1. He gives all the fundamental arguments of the Mishna, as well those of general as of particular application, which may give rise to any points of disputation, with the decisions on them which had been given as well before him as in his own time: he also distinguishes the Mishnic Aphorisms clearly, so that not a letter may be added to or taken from them. In col. 2. Questions of divers persons concerning some particular law are brought forward, and resolved according to the doctrine of the Tanaites and Ammoraites, that is the Mishnic and Ghemaric fathers, the arguments on each side being adduced and well weighed. In col. 3. He expounds with still more care the sentences and decisions pronounced and promulgated from the time of Rabbenu Hakkadosh to his own day. In col. 4. He brings forward all the explanations of Scripture which had been adduced on disputed points of law, as delivered by the ancient doctors, with the allegorical tales, enigmas, and other matter introduced by them in illustration of The name "Talmud" signifies learning. their various arguments; all which are still This celebrated work is a vast body of disfound in the Babylonian Talmud. This quisitions on the Hebrew laws, more espeTalmud was first printed at Venice by Da- cially on the oral law, as collected in the vid Bomberg, A.M. 5280 (A.D. 1520), 12 vols. Mishna, which forms the text of the Talmud, folio: this edition, which is very handsome to which the Ghemara is the commentary. and very rare, contains, besides the whole of Thus the Mishna and Ghemara together the Talmud, the "Tosephoth," or Additions, form the Talmud. The Mishna was compiled the "Piske Tosephoth," or décisions on the about the end of the second century by R. Tosephoth, the Commentaries of Rashi and Judah Hakkadosh, and, being taught in the R. Asher, and the Commentary of Maimo- colleges of Palestine and Babylonia, it gave nides on the Mishna. It was also printed rise to various expositions and commentaries: at Venice by the Giustiniani, A.M. 5339 those of the doctors of Palestine were first (A.D. 1579), 7 vols. fol., and the same year collected by R. Jochanan in the third century, at Basle, by Ambrose Froben, 12 vols. fol.: and formed the Talmud of Jerusalem, while at Cracow, by R. Isaac ben Aaron, A.M. those of the Babylonian doctors were col5362 (A.D. 1602), 12 vols. fol., and again, lected by R. Ashé into the Babylonian TalA.M. 5376 (A.D. 1616), 8 vols. 4to.; at Am- mud. These latter confined their observasterdam, by Emmanuel Benbenaste, A.M. 5404 tions to those treatises of the Mishna which (A.D. 1644), 12 vols. 4to., and at Vienna, were of more useful application, and their A.M. 5551 (A.D. 1791), 12 vols. fol. De commentaries extend to only thirty-seven Rossi also mentions editions of Lublin, Ber- books out of the sixty-three. But from the lin, and Sulzbach; and the Abbé Rive, in his later period to which it extends, and the "Chasse aux Bibliographes," i. 512, men- great celebrity of the doctors and colleges of tions an edition of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Babylon, this second Talmud was carried to A.M. 5475 (A.D. 1715), 12 vols. fol., of which a perfection and magnitude vastly beyond R. Oppenheimer caused a copy to be printed the former, which it consequently almost enfor his own library on vellum. tirely superseded; and for many centuries The Talmud, as printed, is divided into the whole Hebrew nation and their synasix "Sedarim," or orders, each order (Seder) gogues, both of the East and West, have made is divided into "Massictoth" (books or trea- the Babylonian Talmud the great object of tises), and each "Massicta" into "Perakim" their study, and the sole authority for their (sections or chapters). The orders are,-I. legal decisions. The circumstance of this "Zerahim" (seeds), divided into eleven books, work being written at so remote a time, and and seventy-five chapters; it treats of every- in the Chaldee dialect, which is full of diffithing which concerns the earth and its pro-culties and foreign words, added to this the ductions. II. "Mohed" (a set time) has obscure and quaint style, and the singular twelve books, and eighty-eight chapters; it forms of argument and decision, present 767 3D 2 Middoth," which treats of the dimensions of the temple, by Const. L'Empereur, in Hebrew and Latin, printed at Leiden by the Elzevirs, A.D. 1630, in small 4to. Besides the Talmud, Nachmanides in his commentary on the Jetzira, p. 61, attributes to R. Ashé the "Sepher Hannikkur" (book of punctuation), as we find in Buxtorff, "De Antiquitate Vocalium," p. 55; and Jo. Reuchlin, in his work "De Arte Cabbalistica," book iii., cites another work by the author, called "Sepher Hajechid" (the only book), which he calls "Collectura ;" and at p. 764, says, "Whence they (the cabbalists) affirm that the three primal cabbalistical numerations, Kether,' Chocma,' and ' Bina,' are one crown of the Supreme King, as Rab. Asse says in the book Jechid' ()." (Bartoloccius, Biblioth. Mag. Rabb. i. 484—490, iii. 350-762; Wolfius, Biblioth. Hebr. i. 224, iii. 138; De Rossi, Dizion. Storic. degl. Autor. Ebr. i. 56, 57, ii. 138-141; Ugolino, Thesaur. Antiquit. Sacrar. xviii. xix. xx.xxv. passim ; R. David Ganz, Tzemach David, p. 47; R. Gedalia, Shalshelleth Hakkabbala, p. 117; Talmud Babylonicum, Amsterdam, A.M. 5404 (A.D. 1644). C. P. H. many difficulties to the student, and they | Hamburg, A.D. 1705, in 4to.; also the book have given rise to infinite commentaries, introductions, and other works, to explain and illustrate it, as well as to several abridgments in Hebrew, for the familiar use of students. [ALFEZ, ISAAC.] Among Christians, and especially by the church of Rome, the Talmud has been regarded with great dislike: it has been frequently prohibited and burnt, and, indeed, almost all Christian writers have united in its condemnation. Among these Father Bartolocci is conspicuous, for he seldom refers to it without some reproachful epithet. But a more thorough acquaintance with this extraordinary work seems to have produced, among sound scholars, a much better feeling towards it. De Rossi, although a Roman Catholic priest, speaks of it in a very different manner. Time, he says, has shown "that the fables so virulently decried are not so many, that many of them are mere allegories, that the antichristian passages are very few, and that, even in these, the truth of the miracles worked by Jesus and in his name are acknowledged; that there are also in this great work many useful things, many which illustrate the sacred history, antiquities, laws, and ceremonies of the Old Testament; many, also, which ASHE, ROBERT HOADLY, D.D., born illustrate and confirm the New; that among about the year 1751, was the son of a prebena number of puerile and false traditions, there dary of Winchester, and was presented to the are also true ones, transmitted from the mouths living of Crewkerne in Somersetshire, which of the prophets; many, which regard the he retained until his death, in 1775. He Messiah, favourable to the Christian reli- compounded for the degrees of A.M. in 1793, gion;" but those who would see the opinion and of B. and D.D. in 1794, as of Pembroke of this great scholar at full length must con- | College, Oxford. In 1787 he edited a quarto sult his 66 Esame delle riflessioni teologico- volume of "Poetical Translations from vacritiche contro il libro della vana aspetta- rious Authors, by Master John Browne, of zione," pp. 56-80. These just and moderate Crewkerne, a boy of twelve years old ;" and sentiments seem to be gaining ground. in 1799 he published "A Letter to the Rev. John Milner, D.D., F.S.A., Author of the Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Winchester;' occasioned by his false and illiberal Aspersions on the Memory and Writings of Dr. Benjamin Hoadly, formerly Bishop of Winchester." Previous to this time he had inherited considerable property from his aunt, who had married a son of Bishop Hoadly, and he consequently assumed the name of Hoadly-Ashe. Dr. Hoadly-Ashe died, at the age of seventy-five, May 3, 1826. (Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, v. 729, 730; Gentleman's Magazine, xcvi. part ii. p. 181.) J.T.S. ASHE, ST. GEORGE. [ASH, ST. GEORGE.] The persecutions which this great work has suffered have greatly diminished the original manuscripts. In A.M. 5314 (A.D. 1554), according to the "Shalshelleth Hak- | kabbala,” the Talmud was burnt, by order of Pope Julius III., not only at Rome, but throughout all Italy; and, according to Sixtus Senensis (Biblioth. Sancta, lib. ii. p. 125, and lib. iv. p. 314), in the year 1559, in the single city of Cremona twelve thousand copies of the Talmud were burnt by order of the Inquisition. There are, however, manuscripts of separate treatises of the Talmud still to be met with, and the libraries of Oppenheimer and De Rossi are both well furnished with them. Little of the Talmud has been translated. Ugolino, in his "Thesaurus," has given translations of the "Zebachim" (sacrifices), "Menachoth " (offerings), "Sanhedrin" (the Sanhedrim), and some other books of the Talmud; the Sanhedrin for the luminous testimony which it bears to the Messiah. Others have given single books or chapters, as the first chapter of the "Aboda Zara," by G. E. Edzard, printed with the Hebrew and annotations at ASHE, SIMEON, a distinguished Puritan minister in the seventeenth century, of the date and place of whose birth we find no account, was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and was originally settled as a clergyman in Staffordshire, but was displaced from his living for refusing to read the "Book of Sports," and to conform to some of the prescribed ceremonies of the Established Church. We are not informed of the date of this event, but it was probably about 1633, when Charles I. revived the "Book of Sports," which had been introduced by his father, and endeavoured to enforce its general observance. While in Staffordshire Ashe had been on intimate terms with several of the most eminent non-conformists of his time; and after leaving his living he obtained liberty for some time to preach in an exempt church at Wroxhall, under the protection of Sir John Burgoyne, and elsewhere under the protection of Lord Brook. On the breaking out of the civil war he became chaplain to the Earl of Manchester, and in that capacity he wrote and published, in 1644, two small quarto pamphlets, entitled "A particular Relation of the most remarkable Occurrences from the United Forces in the North," and "A True Relation of the most Chiefe Occurrences at and since the late Battell at Newbery." The first of these pamphlets bears also the name of William Goode, another chaplain of the Earl of Manchester, whose conduct they were intended to vindicate; but the second has the name of Ashe only. Although thus active in the parliamentary cause, Ashe did not go so far as some of the leaders of his party, and after the death of the king he vigorously opposed the new commonwealth, and, to use the words of Baxter, fell under the obloquy of the Cromwellians for crossing their designs." He was concerned in the various steps taken to bring about the Restoration of Charles II., and before his return to England he, with other London divines, went to meet him at Breda. At the passing of the Act of Uniformity Ashe held the living of St. Austin in the metropolis, and he was one of the large body of ministers who were preparing to vacate their pulpits on the day when it should come into operation; but he died a few days previous to that event, and was buried on the eve of St. Bartholomew's day, August 24, 1662, the day on which the great secession took place. He had exercised his ministry in London for twenty-three years, and had been, according to Calamy, one of the Cornhill lecturers. He was also one of the Assembly of Divines. Baxter styles him a non-conformist of the old stamp, and a Christian of primitive simplicity, not made for controversy or inclined to disputes, but a man of holy life. He had a good paternal estate, and was very hospitable, his house being much frequented by his brethren. Walker censures him for great severity towards the conforming clergy, but, as shown by Calamy, his strictures are very imperfectly justified by the actual language of Ashe's published sermons. Ashe published several sermons which had been preached before the parliament, and on other public occasions, and some funeral sermons; and he also wrote prefaces to the works of several non-conformist writers, especially to those of his friend John Ball. A list of his sermons is given in the "Catalogue of Printed Books in the Library of the British Museum." Ashe's name is frequently written Ash, perhaps even more frequently than Ashe; but Calamy says that the latter was the spelling adopted by Ashe himself. (Calamy, Account of Ejected Ministers, forming vol. ii. of his Abridgment of Mr. Baxter's History of his Life and Times, pp. 1 and 2; and Continuation of the Account of Ejected Ministers, vol. i. pp. 1–6; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, edited by Sylvester, part ii. p. 430, &c.; Neal, History of the Puritans, edited by Toulmin, vol. iv. p. 391.) J. T. S. ASHE, THOMAS, a Member of the Society of Gray's Inn, at the close of the sixteenth and commencement of the seventeenth centuries, was the author of several indexes and works intended to facilitate the use of the Year-Books and Law Reports, a list of which is given in Worral's "Bibliotheca Legum Angliæ," according to which the earliest of these works was a series of tables to Dyer's "Reports," published in 1602, and, according to Watt's "Bibliotheca Britannica," previously in 1588. Among these is a work in two folio volumes, published at London, in 1614, entitled, "Promptuarie, ou Repertory generall de les Annales, et plusors avters livres del common Ley Dengleterre." He also published, in 1618, a little volume, entitled" Fasciculus Florum; or a Handful of Flowers, gathered out of the severall Bookes of the Right Honorable Sir Edward Coke, Knight, and one of the King's Majesties most honorable counsellours of estate." J. T. S. ASHER, R. (), a Jewish writer, the author of a work in the Judæo-Germanic language, called" Archoth Chajim" (the paths of life), which was printed at Prague, A.M. 5386 (A.D. 1626), 4to. It is an ethical treatise, divided into seven parts, according to the seven days of the week. Wolff conjectures that it is probably a translation only from the Hebrew work, with the same title, and on the same subject, of R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. There was also, in the library at Turin, in a manuscript containing some works of R. Joseph ben Caspi, "Epistles on the only way of Life," by R. Asher and R. Emanuel; besides this we have no notice of this author, or of the time at which he lived and wrote. (Wolfius, Biblioth. Hebr. iii. 139, iv. 793.) C. P. H. ASHER, R. BEN ABRAHAM (8“ n), a Jewish writer of uncertain date. He is the author of "Oth Nephesh (the mark of the soul), which is a supercommentary on the commentary of Aben Ezra on the Pentateuch. The "Siphte Jeshenim" cites the "Oth Nephesh" as the work of an anonymous author; and Wolff, in his first volume, attributes it to R. Levi Gerson, but he was led astray by the old catalogue of manuscripts in England and Ireland. He afterwards obtained a copy of the work from Uffenbach's library, the title of which ran thus, "Sepher Oth Nephesh chabaro haphilosoph R. Asher ben Abraham y" (nucho eden)." (The book of the mark of the soul, written by the philosopher R. Asher ben 4to.; the second part comprised, also, seven discourses on various subjects, but we are not aware that it has yet appeared in print. (Wolfius, Biblioth. Hebr. iii. 158.) C. P. H. ASHER ANSHEL, R. BEN WOLFF je bws ), a Jewish physician and mathematician of Worms, who lived in the early part of the eighteenth Miphtach century. He is the author of “ Haalgebra Chadasha" (a new key to algebra), or, as the Latin title, which appears opposite the Hebrew one, has it, “Anshelii Wormasii, Rab. Med. et Philos. Candidati Abraham, may his rest be paradise.) It is a perfect super-commentary on Aben Ezra, to the last "parasha" of the Pentateuch, and was written by a scribe, who names himself Simeon, for the use of Vebeish bar Juspa, a studious youth: it is without date. The author, probably, lived about the thirteenth century. Among the manuscripts in the king of France's library was a manuscript, by Asher ben Abraham ben David, on the "Shalosh-esre Middoth" (thirteen attributes); that is, on the thirteen divine attributes which the cabbalistical Jewish writers suppose to be comprehended in the word "echad" (one), Deut. vi. 4. Shalosh esre Middoth" is also used to express the thirteen rules for interpreting Scripture, laid down by the rabbis. [ABRAHAM BEN DAVID OSTRENSIS.] Wolff is decidedly of opinion). Rabbenu Asher (our Master Asher) that this is the same Asher ben Abraham as marks the very high estimation in which the author of the "Oth Nephesh." (Wolfius, this celebrated rabbi has always been held Biblioth. Hebr. i. 225, 723, iii. 139, iv. 792.) by his nation, this distinction having been C. P. H. conferred on a few only of their greatest ASHER, R. BEN ABRAHAM, called scholars and commentators. He is likewise BONAN KRESCAS (DN known by the abbreviated name "Harosh" Clavis Algebræ nova, Pars I." It was printed which is formed of the initials of ,(הר"אש) | a Jewish writer who lived ,(בונאן קרשקש about the middle of the sixteenth century. his name and title, but which, if translated, signifies "the head." He was a native of Rothenburg, and at the conclusion of the thirteenth century we find him exercising the office of chief rabbi in his native city, in the year A.M. 5060 (A.D. 1300). But the fear of persecution drove him from his home, and he fled to Toledo, where he was | immediately chosen head of that celebrated Jewish university, which post he continued to fill with great honour until his death, which took place, according to the best authorities, A.M. 5081 (A.D. 1321). He has always been regarded as one of the great lights of the synagogues of Spain, which have produced so many illustrious Hebrew scholars. As to the cause of his leaving his native country, it arose out of that spirit of mingled bigotry and cupidity which often incited Christian rulers to persecute and plunder their Jewish subjects. Thus the Emperor Rudolph had, at the conclusion of the thirteenth century, cast into a dungeon R. Meir of Rothenburg, the preceptor of R. Asher, because he was incapacitated by poverty from paying an enormous fine laid upon him; and, to procure some mitigation to the sufferings of his aged master, R. Asher became security for him. Soon after this R. Meir died in prison, and R. Asher, fearing lest he should be made to take his place, fled as above related. R. Asher had eight sons, all distinguished for their learning; two of whom are known by their works, namely, his third son, R. Jacob ben Asher, who, from his celebrated work called "Arbah Turim," is called "Bahal Turim;" and his fourth son, Judah, who wrote "Chukath Hattora," and "Chukoth Hashamajim," and who fell a victim to the bigotry of the age. | His eldest son, named Jechiel, after his paternal grandfather, is often spoken of by his brother in the "Arbah Turim:" he died before his father. 66 The works of Rabbenu Asher are-1. "Asheri" (the Asherite), or "Kitzur piske Harosh" (a compendium of the decisions of Rabbenu Asher). They are a series of theses on various books and chapters of the Babylonian Talmud, which are subjoined to that work, and are also printed separate from it. In the edition of the Talmud which was commenced at Amsterdam, A.M. 5474 (A.D. 1714), and finished at Frankfort-on-theMain, A.M. 5481 (A.D. 1721), considerable additions were made to these "Piske," from manuscripts not before made use of, and they are found to several of the books which in former editions are without them. The "Kilele Harosh" (conclusions of Rabbenu Asher), which Bartolocci cites as being found, to the number of one hundred and eight, in manuscript in the Vatican, Wolff supposes to be the same work, although cited by Bartolocci as a separate one. 2. Tosephoth o Tosephe Harosh" (additions or the additions of Rabbenu Asher), which are also, for the most part, comprehended under the title " Asheri," are more extensive notes on the Talmud, which are printed with the "Piske" in the margin of the Babylonian Talmud. They are found, in the earlier editions, only to the following books: - Berachoth, Shabbath, Erubin, Pesachim, Betza, Mohed - katon, Rosh Hashana, Joma, Succa, Tahanith, Megilla, Jevamoth, Ketuvoth, Kedushim, Gittin, Sota, Nedarim, Bava Kama, Metzia and Bathra, Sanhedrin, Maccoth, Shevuhoth, Avoda Zara, Cholin, Becoroth, Tahoroth, Mikvaoth, and Nidda; but to the edition before cited, which was completed at Frankfort-on-theMain, A.D. 1721, are added many on other of the books, and on the whole of the orders "Zerahim" and "Tahoroth," from a manuscript in Oppenheimer's library; which library also contains a manuscript of the "Kitzur Piske Harosh," on vellum; also a copy of the "Kitzur," printed at Constantinople by Judah ben Joseph Sason and Samuel ben David ben Nehemiah, A.M. 5280 (A.D. 1520), 4to.; but which is attributed, in the title, to R. Jacob bahal Hatturim, the son of Rabbenu Asher, to whom it is also attributed by R. Shabtai, in his "Siphte Jeshenim." 3." Sheeloth Uteshuvoth" (questions and answers), which are decisions on various points of the moral and ceremonial law, and are divided into chapters according to the several subjects on which they treat: they were first printed at 66 Constantinople in folio, then at Venice by Aloys Bragadini, A.M. 5312 (A.D. 1552), fol., and again at the same place, A.M. 5366 (A.D. 1606), according to the "Siphte Jeshenim." An additional volume to this work was published, during the latter part of the eighteenth century, by R. Isaac de Molino, with his own corrections, at Berlin, as we are told by De Rossi, who cites R. Chajim David Azulai as his authority. 4. "Sepher Hammattanoth" (the book of gifts). This work is cited by Bartolocci and Wolff, but we have no account of the nature of it. 5. Hannehagoth" (the precepts, or institutes). This is a tract on morals, and the conduct of a holy life: it was published at the end of the work called "Tepuche Zahab," of R. Jechiel Meli, printed at Mantua, A.M. 5383 (A.D. 1623), 12mo. The manuscript of this work is in the_library of the College of the Neophytes at Rome. 6. There is among the manuscripts of the Vatican a learned dissertation by this author on the common saying among the Jews, "En Mazal Le Israel (there is no star for Israel), meaning that Israel is not subject to any planetary influence, being under the immediate care of Jehovah, as the chosen people of God. 7. Sepher Aguda" (the book of the collection), which both the "Shalshelleth Hakkabbala" and the "Tzemach David" say was written by the disciples of Rabbenu Asher, from his oral instructions; but R. Shabtai, in the "Siphte Jeshenim," calls the author R. Alexander Cohen Zueslin, or, as the Germans write it, Süslin. [ALEXANDER COHEN.] A collection of some of the principal works of R. Asher, and some of Abraham ben Dior Hasheni, was printed at Prague by the grandsons of Judah Bak, A.M. 5485 (A.D. 1725), in large 4to., edited by R. Solomon ben Judah Löw, of Prague. Hendreich, in his "Pandectæ Brandenburgica," has made three different persons of R. Asher: namely, at p. 304, he has, Asher, Rabbenu; at p. 305, Asher, vulgo Harosh; and, at p. 294, he has Arosh. (De Rossi, Dizion. Storic. degl. Autor. Ebr. i. 57; Wolfius, Biblioth. Hebr. i. 225—227, iii. 139, 140, iv. 793; Bartoloccius, Biblioth. Mag. Rabb. i. 493-502; Shalshelleth Hakkabbala, pp. 58–60; Juchasin, p. 144; Plantavitius, Florileg. Rabbin. pp. 548, 555, 606, 627.) 66 C. P. H. ASHER, R. BEN JOSEPH (2 D1'), a Polish rabbi, called CHASID (the pious), was chief rabbi of Cracow in the early part of the sixteenth century. He was the grandfather of R. Meir of Lublin. That he died a violent death in some of the persecutions to which his nation were so frequently subjected in that age, we infer from the " Siphte Jeshenim," where R. Shabtai, citing this author, adds the abbreviation , which means "Jehovah jenakkem damo" (the Lord avenge his blood). His in |