Sefer ha-zikhronot (The Book of Memories)

Asher Halevi of Reichshofen

1625–1629

I. A Narrow Escape, 1625

“Blessed be He who shows loving kindness to the undeserving, for he requited me with every kindness” in the dead of night, on Monday, in the early morning of the 9th of Kislew, 386 [December 8, 1625] [ . . . ]. I was riding alone from Pfaffenhofen to Reichshofen, and I was fording the river here, opposite the leper-house…

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Creator Bio

Asher Halevi of Reichshofen

1598–after 1634

A lay religious functionary who served as teacher, ritual slaughterer, mohel (circumciser), and cantor for Jews of rural Alsace, Asher ben Eliezer Halevi was born in Bavaria, then raised in the vicinity of Metz. From ages eleven to nineteen, he traveled to Metz, then to Prague, Vienna, and throughout central and eastern Europe in pursuit of his studies. In 1622, he married and settled in his wife’s hometown, Reichshofen, in Alsace. Asher’s memoirs illuminate the daily lives of rural Jews, networks among dispersed communities, and their relationships with the wider Jewish world.

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