Eliezer Aschkenazi. Ma’asei Hashem [commentry 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

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

Eliezer Aschkenazi held influential positions in widely scattered Jewish communities from Egypt, Cyprus and Italy to the major 16th century centers of Poland, where he died. As a biblical exegete, Aschkenazi follows the rationalist trend in rabbinical scholarship. He suggests that irrational elements in Jewish tradition had occurred due to copyists’ errors, misunderstandings and misreadings, or had been precipitated in times of trouble and expulsions, or even inserted by adversaries. Aschkenazi’s commentary on the Hagadah annotates in an aggadic vein alongside a mystical explication and served as a basis for many later commentators. It was very popular and has been republished numerous times to this day.