Alashkar, Joseph ben Moses
ALASHKAR, JOSEPH BEN MOSES
ALASHKAR, JOSEPH BEN MOSES (c. 1500), rabbinical author and Hebrew poet. A victim of the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Alashkar settled in Tlemcen (Algeria) where he became the head of a yeshivah. He was a fertile writer, but none of his works was published. They include (1) Avrekh, commentaries on Rashi; (2) Edut bi-Yhosef, commentary on the laws of ritual slaughter in Maimonides' Code; (3) Mirkevet ha-Mishneh, on Pirkei Avot; (4) Refu'at ha-Nefesh, religious ethics.
In addition, he wrote poems and books in verse form, among them a paraphrase of the tractate Avot, verses on the 70 kinds of terefah, two poems in honor of his contemporary and fellow countryman, Solomon b. Simeon *Duran, as well as several religious odes and hymns.
bibliography:
Carmoly, in: Oẓar Neḥmad, 3 (1860), 105–10; Fuenn, Keneset, 456; Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 400.