Ashkenazi, Judah ben Simeon
ASHKENAZI, JUDAH BEN SIMEON
ASHKENAZI, JUDAH BEN SIMEON (18th century), German codifier. Ashkenazi was born in Frankfurt on the Main where his father was a scribe and parnas of the community. Ashkenazi was serving as dayyan in Tiktin, Poland, before 1742. He wrote Ba'er Heitev, a brief commentary on Joseph Caro's Shulḥan Arukh. His commentary on Oraḥ Ḥayyim was published together with the text (Amsterdam, 1742); and on Yoreh De'ah (ibid., 1736; with additions, 1777); on Even ha-Ezer (ibid., 1739); Ḥoshen Mishpat was not published.
Three other works on the Shulḥan Arukh were published under the name Ba'er Heitev. These are not so much commentaries as résumés of the opinions of other codifiers. They are by Isaiah b. Abraham ha-Levi on Oraḥ Ḥayyim (ibid., 1708); Moses b. Simeon Frankfurt on Ḥoshen Mishpat (ibid., 1749); and by *Zechariah Mendel b. Aryeh Leib of Belz on Yoreh De'ah (ibid., 1754) and Ḥoshen Mishpat (ibid., 1764). In later editions of the Shulḥan Arukh the Ba'er Heitev of Ashkenazi on Oraḥ Ḥayyim and Even ha-Ezer are published, while those of Yoreh De'ah and Ḥoshen Mishpat are by Zechariah Mendel of Belz.
bibliography:
Benjacob, Oẓar, 585–7; S.M. Chones, Toledot ha-Posekim (1910), 92–93; H. Tchernowitz, Toledot ha-Posekim, 2 (1947), 306–12. add. bibliography: M. Nadav, Pinkas Kehal Tiktin, 1 (1996), 22, 26, 43, 48, 51, 63.
[Abraham David]