Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi

Who was Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi?

Rabbi Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi, of Janów, was the author of the Tseno Ureno, sometimes called the "Women's Bible", a Yiddish-language prose work written in c.1590s whose structure parallels the weekly portions of the Pentateuch and Haftorahs used in Shabbat services.

He also authored a supplement, the Melitz Yosher and Seyfer Ha Magid. Ha Magid, which literally means "the book that tells" or "the messenger book" in the biblical sense, as in "the messenger came to David saying" in 2 Samuel 15:13, is a similar compilation on the Prophets and Hagiographa.