Ma‘ase ha-shem (Deeds of the Lord)

Eliezer Ashkenazi

1583

Part I: Narratives of Creation

The first lesson addresses the question which every enlightened reader will raise concerning creation: It is told in our Torah that it indeed took place in seven days, which appears, God forbid, as if the blessed Creator needed to act in time, as is the case with man. Indeed, the rabbis asked, regarding the ten…

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Creator Bio

Eliezer Ashkenazi

1512–1585

A peripatetic and polemic-prone scholar versed in rabbinic and secular philosophical and scientific writings, Eliezer Ashkenazi, whose birthplace is unknown, studied under Joseph Taitatsak in Salonika. He served in professional rabbinic capacities in Egypt, Cyprus, Italy (Venice and Cremona), Bohemia, and Poland (Poznań and Kraków), and he met or corresponded with peers across Europe and the Mediterranean, including Joseph Karo, Azariah de’ Rossi, with whom he had an intellectual affinity, and Judah Loew ben Bezalel (the Maharal of Prague), with whom he clashed sharply. Ashkenazi’s Ma‘ase ha-shem (Deeds of the Lord) follows a rationalist approach to biblical exegesis, incorporating scientific and medical findings.

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