Elazar ben Moshe Azikri

Elazar ben Moshe Azikri
Rabbi Elazar Azikri's grave in Safed
Personal details
Born 1533
Safed, Ottoman Empire
Died 1600
Safed, Ottoman Empire

Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (Hebrew: אלעזר בן משה אזכרי‎‎) (1533–1600) was a Jewish kabbalist, poet and writer, born in Safed to a Sephardic family who had settled in the Land of Israel after the expulsion from Spain.

Rabbi Elazar studied Torah under Rabbi Yosef Sagis and Rabbi Jacob Berab, and is counted with the greatest Rabbis and intellectuals of his time: Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, Yosef Karo, Moshe Cordovero, Isaac Luria, Israel Najara, etc.

In 1588 Rabbi Elazar founded the "Sukat Shalom" movement who acted to arouse in Jews the devotion to religion.

Rabbi Elazar died in 1600 and was buried in Safed.

Works

Rabbi Elazar's Book, the Sefer Haredim (ספר חרדים), printed after his death in 1600, is considered as one of the main books of Jewish deontology.

He also wrote a commentary on Tractate Bezah[1] and Berachot[2] of the Jerusalem Talmud.

The Piyyut (liturgical poem) Yedid Nefesh (ידיד נפש) is commonly attributed to Rabbi Elazar, who first published it in his Sefer Haredim. Recent findings, however, have raised the possibility that Yedid Nefesh actually predates Rabbi Elazar by about a century, leaving the true authorship a mystery.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Dr. Israel Francus". Archived from the original on April 13, 2004. Retrieved 2007-08-26.
  2. ↑ Printed in the Vilna Yerushalmi Brachot.
  3. ↑ Reif, Stefan C. (1997). The Hebrew Manuscripts at Cambridge University Libraries. Cambridge University Press. p. 93. ISBN 9780521583398.
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