ASCHKENAZI, ELIEZER BEN ELIJAH HAROPHE. Ma’asei Hashem [commentary to the Six Days of Creation, Chapters of the Fathers, the Passover Hagadah (with text) and various Biblical portions]

(HAGADAH)

Giovanni di Gara

Venice

1583

FIRST EDITION. Title within woodcut architectural arch. THE RABBI NACHUM DOV-BER FRIEDMAN OF SADIGURA copy, with signature and two alternating stamps

Yudlov 30, not in Yaari; Vinograd, Venice 661; Habermann, di Gara 61

Eliezer Aschkenazi (1513-86) held influential positions in widely scattered Jewish communites, ranging from Egypt, Cyprus and Italy to the major centers of Poland (he died in Cracow). His Biblical exegesis is permeated with the contemporary rationalistic spirit of rabbinic scholarship. Indeed in the present work Ma’asei Hashem, Aschkenazi attacks Rabbi Judah Löw of Prague’s Gevuroth Hashem in which he detects an over-emphasis on the mystical