ASHER-LEYB BRISK (1873-November 29, 1916)
He was born in Jerusalem. After his father, Dovid, separated from his
mother, he was educated by his mother’s parents, R. Meyer Kameiko, custodian of
the Vilna Kolel in Jerusalem, and Rivke-Lipe, widely known as “Rivke the
trustee’s wife” and author of the Yiddish pamphlet Zeykher leoylem
(Eternal remembrance) (Jerusalem, 1884).
He studied in Yeshiva Ets Ḥayim,
and in his youth contributed to the Jerusalem journals Torah mitsiyon
(Torah from Zion) and Or tora (Light of Torah). In 1901 the first volume of his book Ḥelkat meḥokek (Portion of the
lawgiver) appeared, and it transcribed the epitaphs from graves on the Mount of
Olives with excerpts from burial society records and various bibliographic
annotations. He typeset this book,
appearing one volume at a time, five in all, by himself. He was as well the author of a bibliographic
work, entitled Divre kohelet (The words of Ecclesiastes)—versions of its
title pages, prefaces, and approbations, first printing; Briaḥ hatikun, content records of every year
of the Torah journal Tora mitsiyon; Yortsayt-bukh (Book of death
anniversaries) and Mishle ben david (Proverbs of Ben David). He published several books in Yiddish with
fables and aphorisms. During WWI, he was
mobilized by the Turkish government to sweep the streets and perform other hard
labor in the Old City. From a minor reason,
he was sent by the government to build highways in Beersheba, and there he
died.
Sources: Preface to the first
part of Divre kohelet; Y. Davidzon, in Pinkes (New York,
1927), p. 59.
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