Yisroel ben Shmuel of Shklov

Who was Yisroel ben Shmuel of Shklov?

Yisroel ben Shmuel Ashkenazi of Shklov was a Talmudist, one of a group of Talmudical scholars of Shklov who were attracted to Vilna by Elijah Gaon. He was one of "the last arrivals," and attended upon the Gaon as a disciple for less than a year.

He gained Elijah's confidence, and was chosen to arrange for publication the Gaon's commentary to the first two parts of the Shulchan Aruch. That on the Orach Chaim was published in Shklov in 1803. Ashkenazi also published his master's notes to the tractate Shekalim of the Jerusalem Talmud, with a commentary of his own, under the title Taklin Chadtin. Later he emigrated to Palestine and became the head of the German and Polish congregations of Safed and then of Jerusalem. He was there surnamed "Ashkenazi", a name applied to all Jews of German extraction, in contradistinction to the Sephardim, who came originally from Spain or Portugal.

After a residence of several years in the Holy Land, Ashkenazi went to Europe as a ShaDaR, to collect alms for the poor Palestinian Jews residing at the Yishuv haYashan, and in that capacity he traveled through Lithuania and other parts of Russia.