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ASHER

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 731 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ASHER , a tribe of See also:

Israel, called after the son of See also:Jacob and Zilpah, Leah's maid. The name is taken by the narrator of Gen. See also:xxx. 12 seq. (J) to mean happy or propitious, possibly an allusion to the fertility of the tribe's territory (with which cf. Gen. xlix. 20. Deut. xxxiii. 24); on the other See also:hand, like See also:Gad, it may have been originally a divine See also:title. The See also:district held by this tribe bordered upon See also:Naphtali, and See also:lay to the See also:north of See also:Issachar and See also:Zebulun, and to the See also:south of See also:Dan. But the boundaries are not definite and the references to its territory are obscure. Asher is blamed for taking no See also:part in the fight against Sisera (Judg. v. 17), and although it shares with Zebulun and Naphtali in See also:Gideon's defeat of the Midianites (Judg. vi.

35, vii. 23), the narrative in question is not the older of the two accounts of the event, and the See also:

incorporation of the name is probably due to a See also:late redactor. Lying as it did in the closest proximity to Phoenicians and Aramaeans, its See also:population must have been exceptionally mixed, and the description of the occupation of See also:Palestine in Judg. i. 31 seq. shows that it contained a strong Canaanite See also:element. In the Blessing of See also:Moses it is bidden to defend itself—evidently against invasion (Deut. xxxiii. 25). Even in the See also:time of Seti I. and See also:Rameses II. (latter See also:half of 14th cent. B.C.) the district to the See also:west of See also:Galilee appears to have been known to the Egyptians as Aser(u), so that it is possible to infer either (a) that Asher was an Israelite tribe which, if it ever went down into See also:Egypt, separated itself from its brethren in Egypt, and migrated north, " an example which was probably followed by some of the other tribes as well " (Hommel, See also:Ancient See also:Hebrew Tradition, p. 228); or (b) it was a district which, if never closely See also:bound to Israel, was at least regarded as part of the See also:national See also:kingdom, and treated as Israelite by the genealogical See also:device of making it a " son " of Jacob. It is possible that some of its Israelite population had followed the example of Dan and moved from an earlier See also:home in the south. Two of the clans of Asher, See also:Heber and Malchiel, have been associated with See also:Milk-See also:ili and Habiri, the names of a hostile See also:chief and See also:people in the Amarna Tablets (Jastrow, See also:Journal Bibl.

Lit. xi. pp. 118 seq., xii. pp. 61 seq., Hommel), but it is scarcely probable that events of about 1400 B.C. should have survived only in this See also:

form. This applies also to the See also:suggestion that the name Asher has been derived from a famous Abd-ashirta of the same See also:period (See also:Barton, ib. xv. p. 174). Some connexion with the goddess Ashir(t)a, however, is not unlikely. See further H. W. See also:Hogg, Ency. Bibl. See also:col. 327 seq.; E. See also:Meyer, Israelite'', pp.

540 sqq. (S. A. C.) 'ASHER See also:

BEN •YEHIEL (known as Rosh), Jewish See also:rabbi and codilier, was See also:born in the See also:Rhine district C. 1250, and died in See also:Toledo 1327. Endangered by the persecutions inflicted on the See also:German See also:Jews in the 13th See also:century, 'Asher fled to See also:Spain, where See also:ASHEVILLE 731 he was made rabbi of Toledo. His enforced See also:exile impoverished him, and from this date begins an important See also:change in the status of See also:medieval rabbis. Before the 14th century, rabbis had obtained a livelihood by the exercise of some See also:secular profession, particularly See also:medicine, and received no See also:salary for performing the rabbinic See also:function. This was now changed. A See also:disciple of See also:Meir of Rothenburg, 'Asher's See also:sole See also:interest was in the See also:Talmud. He was a See also:man of austere piety, profound and narrow. He was a determined opponent of the study of See also:philosophy, and thus was antipathetic to the See also:Spanish spirit.

The Jews of Spain continued, nevertheless, devotees of secular sciences as well as of rabbinical See also:

lore. 'Asher was the first of the German rabbis to display strong See also:talent for systematization, and his chief See also:work partook of the nature of a compendium of the Talmud. Compiled between 1307 and 1314, 'Asher's Compendium resembled, and to a large extent superseded, the work of 'Al-phasi (q.v.). 'Asher's Compendium is printed in most See also:editions of the Talmud, and it differed from previous Compendia in greater simplicity and in the deference shown to German authorities. 'Asher's son Jacob, who died at Toledo before 1340, was the author of the four Turim, a very profound and popular codification of rabbinical See also:law. This work was the See also:standard See also:code until See also:Joseph See also:Qaro directly based on it his widely accepted Code of Jewish law, the Shulhan `Arukh. (I.

End of Article: ASHER

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