Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi—the Shitah Mekubetzet רבי בצלאל אשכנזי — שיטה מקובצת
disciple of the Radbaz who gathered the Shitah Mekubetzet; teacher of the Arizal
He was born in the Land of Israel, in Jerusalem or in Safed—the sources name both towns and give no year. He studied in Egypt under the Radbaz and, after the Radbaz left for the Land of Israel, stood at the head of the Egyptian yeshivot.
The work of his life is the Shitah Mekubetzet, "the gathered commentary": for the tractates of the Talmud he brought into one body the explanations of the Rishonim that until then lay in manuscript in different houses—the Raavad, the Ramban, the Rashba, the Ritva, the Ra'ah, Rabbeinu Yonah and many others. For some of these commentaries his collection is all that survives. In Cairo Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the future Arizal, learned under him, and it was here that he took his halakhah.
In old age he went up to Jerusalem and became head of the community; under him the office of nagid in Jerusalem was abolished. He died in Jerusalem about 1592; the sources give no exact year, and the window is set by the testimonies.
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The Shitah Mekubetzet — the collection of the Rishonim's commentaries and the prefaces to the tractates
- The Shem HaGedolim of the Chida — the teacher of the Arizal, Egypt and Jerusalem
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — the window of years, the abolition of the nagid, the dispute over the birthplace
Basis: documents and evidence.