Ashkenazi, Malkiel
ASHKENAZI, MALKIEL
ASHKENAZI, MALKIEL (d. c. 1620), kabbalist. He probably settled first at Safed, where he was close to the circle of Isaac *Luria's disciples, and subsequently in Hebron. He was probably the rabbi of Hebron and, according to reports that Ḥ.J.D. *Azulai heard from the elders of Hebron, Ashkenazi was responsible for consolidating Jewish settlement in Hebron. Ashkenazi had an important library at his house, including six scrolls of Lurianic Kabbalah corrected in Ḥayyim Vital's own hand (Ms. Montefiore 348). R. Solomon ha-Narboni of Hebron mentions a manuscript which was shown to him by "the accomplished scholar, pietist, and saint" (J. Kastaro, Oholei Ya'akov (1783), no. 113). R. Isaiah ha-Levi *Horowitz mentions in his book Shenei Luḥot ha-Berit (1648) the customs of Hebron according to R. Malkiel Ashkenazi. The impression left by Malkiel in the sources is of a learned man whose opinions were accepted; nevertheless none of his writings survived.
bibliography:
Rosanes, Togarmah, 3 (1938), 306; M. Benayahu, Sefer Ḥida (1959), 69–70, 83, 89.