Rabbi Elazar Azikri רבי אלעזר אזכרי

Rabbi Elazar Azikri was born in 1533 in Safed — that is, already in the Land of Israel, not in exile. He studied under Rabbi Yosef Sagis and under Cordovero. In 1596 he received ordination from Yaakov Berav II — evidence that the chain begun in 1538 did not break off at once.

He finished Sefer Charedim in 1588; the book was printed at Venice in 1601, after his death. It is arranged by the commandments, but speaks not of how to perform them so much as with what heart: kabbalistic musar, reprinted dozens of times.

His manuscript is a story of its own. Azikri's mystical diary, in his own hand and covering the years from 1564 almost to his death, is held at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York (Ms. Adler 74); it was found by Meir Benayahu and published in 1994. In it stands Yedid Nefesh — "Beloved of the soul," four stanzas whose opening letters spell the four-letter Name.

Authorship is usually credited to Azikri — but he nowhere says the verses are his, and Judah Halevi and Israel Najara have both been proposed. The manuscript proves the text passed through his hands, not that he composed it. It also differs from the printed editions in single words: the Koren and Rinat Yisrael prayer books follow the manuscript, ArtScroll the print.