Mardochai

Mardochai a name borne by many rabbins and Jewish savans. The most renowned of them are the following:

1. MARDOCHAÏ ASHKENASI, a fanatical adherent of Sabbathai Zewi, flourished very near the middle of the 17th century. A man of prepossessing appearance, and remarkably talented as a pulpit orator, he traveled through Hungary, Moravia, and Bohemia, everywhere preaching the Sabbathical doctrines, and declaring himself a prophet, insisted upon the duty of his people to welcome Sabbathai Zewi as the veritable Messiah. The persecutions which were so frequent at that time in Germany, France, and Spain had softened the hearts of the poor Jews, and they were anxiously looking for relief from some quarter. Finding that his declarations were favorably received, Mardochai finally announced that he himself was the risen Zewi, who had been dead three years, and actually found many adherents, especially in Italy and in Poland. He is said to have lost his reason, and to have died, a poor and forsaken wretch, somewhere in Poland, about 1682. See Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden, 10:334 sq.; and 42, in Appendix.

2. MARDOCHAÏ BEN-ELEASAR COMINO (or Comiano) flourished in the second half of the 15th century (1460-1490) first at Constantinople, later at Adrianople. A thorough master of mathematics and astronomy, he fell in with the writings of Aben-Ezra (q.v.), and became one of his most ardent admirers and devoted followers. He commented on the sacred writings, and by his generous ways secured the love and admiration of both Karaites and Rabbinites. He also studied the Aristotelian philosophy, introduced by the works of Moses Maimonides, and thus as a philosopher secured no mean reputation. He wrote כתר תורה, a Commentary on the Pentateuch (1460); a Commentary on Aben-Ezra's יסוד מוזא; a Commentary on Ezra's ספר השם; a Commentary on Ezra's ספר האחד; a Commentary on Maimonides's Logik, and other logical writings, etc.

3. MARDOCHAI BEN-HILLEL, a German rabbi, who, while a resident of Nuremberg, was accused of insulting the Christian faith and defending the cabalistic writers, and was visited with the death penalty for his hasty conduct in 1310. He wrote Mardochai Magnus, a commentary on Alphesius's Compendiumm Talmudicum (Riva, 1559, 4to; Cracow, 1598, folio, and often): — De Ritibus mactationis (Venice, 8vo). See Auerbach,

Benit A braham, p. 15; Wiirfel, Hist. N'achricht von der Judengemeinde in Nürnbesry.

4. MARDOC-HA- BEN-NISSAN, a Polish rabbi, flourished at Crosni-osthro, in Galicia, in the second half of the 17th century. He wrote , דוד מרדכי, or "the friend of Mardochai" (Hamb. 1714 and 1721, 4to, with a Latin transl. by Wolf, in Notitia Karaiorum), a work which contains a complete expose of the doctrines of the Karaites. Mardochai was himself a Karaite, and wrote this work by special request of the learned Trigland, who afterwards translated this valuable contribution to the history of the Karaite Jews. Mardochai ben-Nissan wrote also לבוש מלכות (published by Neubauer), another work on Karaism. See Wolf, Bibl. iebsr.; Fürst, Bibl. Judaica; Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden, 10:301, and note 5 in the Appendix.

5. MARDOCHAÏ, ISAAC NATHAN, an Italian rabbi, flourished at Rome near the middle of the 11th century. He was the author of Concordantiae Hebraicae (Basle, 1581, fol.; Cracow, 1584, 4to, with a German transl.; Rome, 1622, fol., with additions by Mario de Calasio; London, 1747-49, 4 vols. fol.); a Latin translation was published at Basle in 1556.

6. MARDOCHAI, JAPHE SCHLESINGER, a noted rabbi and learned cabalist, flourished at Prague, in Bohemia, near the opening of the 17th century. He was a pupil of the celebrated Isserles (q.v.), when the latter lived at Cracow. He was a native of Prague, and was born, according to Gritz (Gesch. d. Juden, 9:485), about 1530, and lived in the capital of Bohemia until the persecutions against the Jews made his stay impossible; he went first to Venice, and later returned to Poland, where he was successively rabbi at Grodno, Lukin, Krzemnitz (1575-1592), and, in a good old age, found a refuge in his native place. He died at Prague about 1612, as rabbi of his people. He wrote לבוש יקרות, a cabalistic treatise, divided into six books. which is believed to have been completed about 1560. It has been frequently published at Cracow (1594-1599, 4 vols. fol.), Prague (1609, 1623, 1688, 1701), and Venice (1622, fol.).

7. MARDOCHAI IBN-ALCHARBIJA. SEE SAAD ADDANLA. (J. H.W.)