1.
Israel Museum
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The Israel Museum was founded in 1965 as Israels national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. An urn-shaped building on the grounds of the museum, the Shrine of the Book, houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and it is one of the largest museums in the region. Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek was the spirit behind the establishment of the Israel Museum, one of the leading art. Since its establishment in 1965, the Museum has built up a collection of nearly 500,000 objects, James S. Snyder, former Deputy Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, was appointed director of the museum in 1997. From 1965, the museum was housed in a series of buildings designed by the Russian-born Israeli architect Alfred Mansfeld. A $100-million campaign to renovate the museum and double its space was completed in July 2010. The wings for archaeology, the arts, and Jewish art and life were completely rebuilt. The passageways that connect between the buildings and five new pavilions were designed by James Carpenter, the museum covers nearly 50,000 sq. meters and attracts 800,000 visitors a year, including 100,000 children who visit and attend classes in its Youth Wing. This narrative is supplemented by thematic groupings highlighting aspects of ancient Israeli archaeology that are unique to the history, among them Hebrew writing, glass. A special gallery at the entrance to the wing showcases new findings, the Shrine of the Book houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world, as well as rare early medieval biblical manuscripts. The scrolls were discovered in 1947–56 in 11 caves in and around the Wadi Qumran, the building consists of a white dome over a building located two-thirds below the ground. The dome is reflected in a pool of water that surrounds it, across from the white dome is a black basalt wall. The interior of the shrine was designed to depict the environment in which the scrolls were found, there is also a permanent display on life in the Qumran, where the scrolls were written. The entire structure was designed to resemble a pot in which the scrolls were found, the shrine was designed by Armand Bartos and Frederick Kiesler, and was opened in 1965. As the fragility of the scrolls makes it impossible to display all on a continuous basis, after a scroll has been exhibited for 3–6 months, it is removed from its showcase and placed temporarily in a special storeroom, where it rests from exposure. The museum also holds other rare ancient manuscripts and displays the Aleppo Codex, originally constructed on the grounds of Jerusalem’s Holyland Hotel, the model, which includes a replica of Herods Temple, is now a permanent feature of the museums 20-acre campus. The Israel Museum holds a collection of paintings representing a wide range of periods, styles, subjects
2.
Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem
3.
Abgar V
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Abgar V the Black or Abgarus V of Edessa was a historical ruler of the kingdom of Osroene, holding his capital at Edessa. Professor Robert Eisenman suggests that Queen Helena was the sister-wife of King Abgar V who was given the lands of Adiabene by her brother-husband, the king. Professor Eisenman derived this association from Moses of Chorene mentioning the same relief to Judaea as does Flavius Josephus, The chief of King Abgar’s wives. Helena went away to Jerusalem in the time of Claudius, during the famine which Agabus had predicted, spending all her treasures she bought an immense amount of grain in Egypt, which she distributed to the poor, to which Josephus bears witness. Her famous mausoleum stands before the gate at Jerusalem to this very day, the conflation of King Abgarus V and King Monobaz I would mean that the sons of Abgarus V were Monobazus II and Izates bar Monobaz. Professor Eisenman goes on to equate King Abgarus V with the Agabus in Acts of the Apostles, by necessity Eisenman then equates the biblical Antioch Orontes with Antioch Edessa, indicating that Saul-Paul and Barnabas went to Edessa. Abgar V is reported to be one of the first Christian kings in history, having converted to the faith by Thaddeus of Edessa. The church historian Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea records that the Edessan archives contained a copy of a correspondence exchanged between Abgar of Edessa and Jesus, the correspondence consisted of Abgars letter and the answer dictated by Jesus. On August 15,944, the Church of Saint Mary of Blachernae in Constantinople received the letter, both relics were then moved to the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos. Of this correspondence, there not only a Syriac text. A curious growth has arisen from this event, with scholars disputing whether Abgar suffered from gout or from leprosy, whether the correspondence was on parchment or papyrus, and so forth. The text of the letter was, Abgar, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus the good physician who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, I have heard the reports of you and of your cures as performed by you without medicines or herbs. I have therefore written to you to ask you if you would take the trouble to come to me, for I have heard that the Jews are murmuring against you and are plotting to injure you. But I have a small yet noble city which is great enough for us both. Jesus gave the messenger the reply to return to Abgar, Blessed are you who hast believed in me without having seen me. For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will not believe in me, but after I have been taken up I will send to you one of my disciples, that he may heal your disease and give life to you and yours. Egeria wrote of the letter in her account of her pilgrimage in Edessa and she read the letter during her stay, and remarked that the copy in Edessa was fuller than the copies in her home. In addition to the importance it attained in the apocryphal cycle, the Syriac liturgies commemorate the correspondence of Abgar during Lent
4.
Judaism
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Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism
5.
Ashurism
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Ashurism was the first religion of the Ashurite people. The religion had myriad gods and goddesses, which can be found in any of the old religions, as each god, in Ashurism it was the god Ashur that was the ultimate worship, thus by nature, constituting the religion as Monolatrism. All the other gods were seen as aspects of the chief god Ashur who was the totality of the gods, Ashur derives from the Sumerian god AN. SHAR, an meaning heaven and shar literally meaning whole. It was during the Sargonid era that the name Ashur was written as AN. SHAR, Ashur is symbolized as a deity in a winged and emanating sun disk. Ashur thus represents, from the derivative AN. SHAR, whole heaven or spirit, the consort of Ashur was Ishtar or Inanna, which since Ashur derived from AN. SHAR, thus Ishtar would be derived from KI. SHAR, which means whole Earth or matter. To the Ashurites Ishtar/Inanna represented the goddess of love, the feminine, and the consort of Ashur. Ashurism was a part of the Ancient Semitic religions and also closely paralleled the Proto-Indo European religion, in Zoroastrianism Ashur is equated with Ahura Mazda. The Ashurites greatly influenced the art in the Achaemenid Empire and both Ahura Mazda and Ashur were equated as the totality of the deities with almost exact iconography
6.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
7.
Assyrian people
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Assyrian people, or Syriacs, are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East. Some of them self-identify as Chaldeans, or as Arameans and they speak modern Aramaic, whose subdivisions include Northeastern, Central, and Western Neo-Aramaic, as well as another language, dependent on the country of residence. The Assyrians are typically Syriac-speaking Christians who claim descent from Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, the areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. The majority have migrated to regions of the world, including North America, the Levant, Australia, Europe, Russia. Assyrians are predominantly Christian, mostly adhering to the East and West Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity, whereas the churches of the West Syrian rite, the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church, mostly speak the Central and Western branches. According to a 2013 report by a Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council official, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to Neanderthals such as the remains of those which have been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria belonged to the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, the history of Assyria begins with the formation of the city of Assur perhaps as early as the 25th century BC. The Assyrian king list records kings dating from the 25th century BC onwards, the earliest being Tudiya, who was a contemporary of Ibrium of Ebla. However, many of early kings would have been local rulers. In the traditions of the Assyrian Church of the East, they are descended from Abrahams grandson, however, there is no historical basis for the biblical assertion whatsoever, there is no mention in Assyrian records. The Assyrian people, after the fall of their empire, fell under foreign domination ever since, the Persian Empire was founded, which consumed the entire Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire in 539 BC. Assyrians became front line soldiers for the Persian Empire under Xerxes I, the Assyrian army accounted for three legions of the Roman army, defending the Parthian border. In the 1st century, it was the Assyrian army that enabled Vespasians coup, from the later 2nd century, the Roman Senate included several notable Assyrians, including Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus and Avidius Cassius. From the 1st century BC, Assyria was the theatre of the protracted Roman–Persian Wars and it would become a Roman province from 116 to 363 AD. Despite the influx of foreign elements, the presence of Assyrians is confirmed by the worship of the god Ashur, the Greeks, Parthians, and Romans had a rather low-level of integration with the local population in Mesopotamia, which allowed their cultures to survive. The Assyrians were Christianized in the first to third centuries in Roman Syria, the population of the Sasanian province of Asōristān was a mixed one, composed of Assyrians, Arameans in the far south and the western deserts, and Persians. The Greek element in the cities, still strong during the Parthian Empire, the majority of the population were Eastern Aramaic speakers. Along with the Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Nabataeans, the Council of Seleucia of ca.325 dealt with jurisdictional conflicts among the leading bishops
8.
Adiabene
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Adiabene was an ancient kingdom in Assyria, with its capital at Arbela. Adiabenian rulers converted to Judaism from paganism in the 1st century, according to the Talmud, both Helena and Monobaz donated large funds for the Temple of Jerusalem. After 115 CE, there are no traces of Jewish royalties in Adiabne. Adiabene occupied a district in Assyria between the Upper Zab and the Lower Zab, though Ammianus speaks of Nineveh, Ecbatana, although nominally a dependency of the Parthian Empire, for some centuries, beginning with the 1st century BCE, it was independent. By the late 1st century CE, its borders extended as far as Nisibis, in the Talmudic writings the name occurs as חדייב, חדייף and הדייב, which is parallel to its Syriac form Hadyab or Hedayab. Its chief city was Arbela, where Mar Uqba had a school, or the neighboring Hazzah, in Kiddushin 72a the Biblical Habor is identified with Adiabene, but in Yerushalmi Megillah i. In the Targum to Jeremiah li,27, Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz are paraphrased by Kordu, Harmini, and Hadayab, i. e. Corduene, Armenia, and Adiabene, while in Ezekiel xxvii. 23 Harran, Caneh, and Eden are interpreted by the Aramaic translator as Harwan, Nisibis, Adiabene had a mixed population, while the Syriac language was dominant. According to Pliny, four tribes inhabited the region of Adiabene, Orontes, Alani, the account of Josephus Antiquities of the Jews shows that there was a substantial Jewish population in the kingdom, which led to the establishment of a prominent rabbinic academy in Arbela. During the Sassanid era, Persians came to the fore politically, the difficult mixing of cultures can be seen in the story of the martyrdom of Mahanuš, a prominent Iranian Zoroastrian who converted to Christianity. In later times Adiabene became an archbishopric, with the seat of the metropolitan at Arbela and it has been suggested that the royal house of Adiabene, after fleeing Trajans invasion, established the later Amatuni dynasty which ruled the area between the lakes Urmia and Van. Adiabene was a district in Mesopotamia between upper and lower Zab and was a part of the Neo Assyrian Empire and inhabited by Assyrians even after the fall of Nineveh and it was an integral part of Achaemenid Assyria and Sassanid Assyria. The region was made a part of the Roman province of Assyria after the invasion by Trajan in 116. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus states that the inhabitants of Adiabene were Assyrians, in ancient times Adiabene was an integral part of Assyria. Under the Achaemenid Persian kings, Adiabene seems for a time to have been a state of the Persian Empire. At times the throne of Adiabene was held by a member of the Achaemenid house, Ardashir III, the Ten Thousand, an army of Greek mercenaries, retreated through Adiabene on their march to the Black Sea after the Battle of Cunaxa. According to Jewish tradition, Hellena, the Queen of Adiabne converted to Judaism from paganism in the 1st century, Queen Helenas sarcophagus was discovered in 1863. According to Josephus the queen converted to Judaism together with her son Monobaz II, another tradition has it that she met a Jewish jewelry merchant in Adiabene by the name of Hanania or Eliezer, who told her about the people of Israel and persuaded her to join them
9.
Edessa
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Edessa was a city in Upper Mesopotamia, founded on an earlier site by Seleucus I Nicator ca.302 BC. It was also known as Antiochia on the Callirhoe from the 2nd century BC and it was the capital of the semi-independent kingdom of Osroene from c.132 BC and fell under direct Roman rule in ca. It became an important early centre of Syriac Christianity and it fell to the Muslim conquest in 639, was briefly re-taken by Byzantium in 1031, and became the center of the Crusader state of the County of Edessa during 1098–1144. It fell to the Turkic Zengid dynasty in 1144 and was absorbed by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. The modern name of the city is Şanlıurfa, in Turkeys Southeast Anatolia Region, the earliest name of the city was Adma recorded Assyrian cuneiform sources in the 7th century BC. It was renamed Callirrhoe or Antiochia on the Callirhoe in the 2nd century BC and it was named Justinopolis in the early 6th century. According to Jewish and Muslim tradition, it is Ur Kasdim, in the second half of the 2nd century BC, as the Seleucid monarchy disintegrated in the wars with Parthia, Edessa became the capital of the Abgar dynasty, who founded the Kingdom of Osroene. This kingdom was established by Nabataean or Arab tribes from North Arabia, and lasted four centuries, under twenty-eight rulers. Edessa was at first more or less under the protectorate of the Parthians, then of Tigranes of Armenia, Edessa was Armenian Mesopotamias capital city, from 212 to 214 the kingdom was a Roman province. The emperor Caracalla was assassinated on the road from Edessa to Carrhae by one of his guards in 217, Edessa became one of the frontier cities of the province of Osroene and lay close to the border of Sassanid Persia. The Battle of Edessa took place between the armies of the Roman Empire under the command of Emperor Valerianus and Sassanid forces under Shahanshah Shapur I in 260. The Roman army was defeated and captured in its entirety by the Persian forces, including Valerian himself, the literary language of the tribes that had founded this kingdom was Aramaic, from which Syriac developed. The precise date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa is not known, however, there is no doubt that even before AD190 Christianity had spread vigorously within Edessa and its surroundings and that shortly after the royal house joined the church. Yet various sources confirm that the Abgar who embraced the Christian faith was Abgar IX, under him Christianity became the official religion of the kingdom. As for Addai, he was one of the seventy-two disciples as the legend asserts. He was succeeded by Aggai, then by Palout who was ordained about 200 by Serapion of Antioch, a Christian council was held at Edessa as early as 197. In 201 the city was devastated by a flood. In 232 the relics of the apostle Thomas were brought from Mylapore, India, under Roman domination many martyrs suffered at Edessa, Sts
10.
Iranian peoples
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The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse Indo-European ethno-linguistic group that comprise the speakers of the Iranian languages. Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a branch of the Indo-Iranians in Central Asia in the mid 2nd millennium BC. In the 1st millennium AD, their area of settlement was reduced as a result of Slavic, Germanic, Turkic and Mongol expansions and many being subjected to Slavicisation. The Iranian peoples include Balochs, Kurds, Gilaks, Lurs, Mazanderanis, Ossetians, Pashtuns, Pamiris, Persians, Tajiks, Talysh people, the term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān and Parthian Aryān. The Middle Iranian terms ērān and aryān are oblique plural forms of gentilic ēr- and ary-, there have been many attempts to qualify the verbal root of ar- in Old Iranian arya-. The following are according to 1957 and later linguists, Emmanuel Laroche, Old Iranian arya- being descended from Proto-Indo-European ar-yo-, meaning assembler. Harold Walter Bailey, ar- to beget, unlike the Sanskrit ā́rya-, the Old Iranian term has solely an ethnic meaning. Today, the Old Iranian arya- remains in ethno-linguistic names such as Iran, Alan, Ir, in the Iranian languages, the gentilic is attested as a self-identifier included in ancient inscriptions and the literature of Avesta. The earliest epigraphically attested reference to the word occurs in the Bistun Inscription of the 6th century BC. The inscription of Bistun describes itself to have composed in Arya. As is also the case for all other Old Iranian language usage, in royal Old Persian inscriptions, the term arya- appears in three different contexts, As the name of the language of the Old Persian version of the inscription of Darius I in the Bistun Inscription. As the ethnic background of Darius the Great in inscriptions at Rustam Relief and Susa, as the definition of the God of Iranians, Ohrmazd, in the Elamite version of the Bistun Inscription. In the Dna and Dse, Darius and Xerxes describe themselves as an Achaemenid, a Persian, son of a Persian, although Darius the Great called his language arya-, modern scholars refer to it as Old Persian because it is the ancestor of the modern Persian language. The trilingual inscription erected by the command of Shapur I gives a clear description. The languages used are Parthian, Middle Persian, and Greek, tou Arianon ethnous despotes eimi, which translates to I am the king of the kingdom of the Iranians. In Middle Persian, Shapur says ērānšahr xwadāy hēm and in Parthian he says aryānšahr xwadāy ahēm, the Avesta clearly uses airiia- as an ethnic name, where it appears in expressions such as airyāfi daiŋˊhāvō, airyō šayanəm, and airyanəm vaējō vaŋhuyāfi dāityayāfi. In the late part of the Avesta, one of the homelands was referred to as Airyanəm Vaējah which approximately means expanse of the Iranians. The homeland varied in its range, the area around Herat
11.
Zoroastrianism
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Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster, it exalts a deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda, as its Supreme Being. Zoroastrianism was suppressed from the 7th century onwards following the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633-654, recent estimates place the current number of Zoroastrians at around 2.6 million, with most living in India and in Iran. Besides the Zoroastrian diaspora, the older Mithraic faith Yazdânism is still practised amongst Kurds, the religious philosophy of Zoroaster divided the early Iranian gods of Proto-Indo-Iranian tradition. The most important texts of the religion are those of the Avesta, in Zoroastrianism, the creator Ahura Mazda, through the Spenta Mainyu is an all-good father of Asha, in opposition to Druj and no evil originates from him. He and his works are evident to humanity through the six primary Amesha Spentas, Spenta Mainyu adjoined unto truth oppose the Spirits opposite, Angra Mainyu and its forces born of Akəm Manah. In Zoroastrianism, the purpose in life is to be among those who renew the world. to make the progress towards perfection. Its basic maxims include, Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta, which mean, Good Thoughts, Good Words, there is only one path and that is the path of Truth. Do the right thing because it is the thing to do. The full name by which Zoroaster addressed the deity is, Ahura, The Lord Creator and he proclaimed that there is only one God, the singularly creative and sustaining force of the Universe. He also stated that human beings are given a right of choice, Zoroasters teachings focused on responsibility, and did not introduce a devil per se. The contesting force to Ahura Mazda was called Angra Mainyu, or angry spirit, post-Zoroastrian scripture introduced the concept of Ahriman, the Devil, which was effectively a personification of Angra Mainyu. The name Zoroaster is a Greek rendering of the name Zarathustra and he is known as Zartosht and Zardosht in Persian and Zaratosht in Gujarati. The Zoroastrian name of the religion is Mazdayasna, which combines Mazda- with the Avestan language word yasna, meaning worship, in English, an adherent of the faith is commonly called a Zoroastrian or a Zarathustrian. An older expression still used today is Behdin, meaning The best Religion | Beh < Middle Persian Weh + Din < Middle Persian dēn < Avestan Daēnā. In Zoroastrian liturgy the term is used as a title for an individual who has formally inducted into the religion in a Navjote ceremony. The term Mazdaism /ˈmæzdə. ɪzəm/ is a typical 19th century construct, taking Mazda- from the name Ahura Mazda, the March 2001 draft edition of the Oxford English Dictionary also records an alternate form, Mazdeism, perhaps derived from the French Mazdéisme, which first appeared in 1871. In older English sources, the terms Gheber and Gueber were used to refer to Zoroastrians, however, Zoroastrian philosophy is identified as having been known to Italian Renaissance Europe through an image of Zoroaster in Raphaels School of Athens by Giorgio Vasari in 1550. The Oxford English Dictionary records use of the term Zoroastrianism in 1874 in Archibald Sayces Principles of Comparative Philology, Zoroastrians believe that there is one universal, transcendent, supreme god, Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord
12.
Magi
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Magi denotes followers of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster. The earliest known use of the word Magi is in the inscription written by Darius the Great. Old Persian texts, pre-dating the Hellenistic period, refer to a Magus as a Zurvanic, the plural magi entered the English language from Latin around 1200, in reference to these. The singular appears considerably later, in the late 14th century, the Avestan word magâunô, i. e. the religious caste of the Medes, seems to be the origin of the term. The term only appears twice in Iranian texts from before the 5th century BCE and this one instance occurs in the trilingual Behistun inscription of Darius the Great, and which can be dated to about 520 BCE. In this trilingual text, certain rebels have magian as an attribute, the meaning of the term in this context is uncertain. The other instance appears in the texts of the Avesta, i. e. in the literature of Zoroastrianism. In this instance, which is in the Younger Avestan portion, an unrelated term, but previously assumed to be related, appears in the older Gathic Avestan language texts. A description of the rituals that Heraclitus refers to has not survived, better preserved are the descriptions of the mid-5th century BCE Herodotus, who in his portrayal of the Iranian expatriates living in Asia minor uses the term magi in two different senses. In the first sense, Herodotus speaks of the magi as one of the tribes/peoples of the Medes, in another sense, Herodotus uses the term magi to generically refer to a sacerdotal caste, but whose ethnic origin is never again so much as mentioned. Their influence was widespread throughout Asia Minor. It is, therefore, quite likely that the caste of the Magi was distinct from the Median tribe of the same name. Other Greek sources from before the Hellenistic period include the gentleman-soldier Xenophon, in his early 4th century BCE Cyropaedia, Xenophon depicts the magians as authorities for all religious matters, and imagines the magians to be responsible for the education of the emperor-to-be. Victor H. Mair provides archaeological and linguistic evidence suggesting that Chinese wū was maybe a loanword from Old Persian *maguš magician and it is especially interesting that one of the figurines bears on the top of his head the clearly incised graph ☩ which identifies him as a wu. These figurines, which are dated circa 8th century BCE, were discovered during a 1980 excavation of a Zhou Dynasty palace in Fufeng County, compared with the linguistic reconstructions of many Indo-European languages, the current reconstruction of Old Chinese is more provisional. This velar final -g in Mairs *myag is evident in several Old Chinese reconstructions, as early as the 5th century BCE, Greek magos had spawned mageia and magike to describe the activity of a magus, that is, it was his or her art and practice. But almost from the outset the noun for the action and the noun for the actor parted company, the early Greek texts typically have the pejorative meaning, which in turn influenced the meaning of magos to denote a conjurer and a charlatan. Already in the mid-5th century BC, Herodotus identifies the magi as interpreters of omens, once the magi had been associated with magic—Greek magikos—it was but a natural progression that the Greeks image of Zoroaster would metamorphose into a magician too
13.
Josephus
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Josephus claimed the Jewish Messianic prophecies that initiated the First Roman-Jewish War made reference to Vespasian becoming Emperor of Rome. In response Vespasian decided to keep Josephus as a slave and interpreter, after Vespasian became Emperor in 69 CE, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the emperors family name of Flavius. Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship and he became an advisor and friend of Vespasians son Titus, serving as his translator when Titus led the Siege of Jerusalem. Since the siege proved ineffective at stopping the Jewish revolt, the citys destruction, Josephus recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the first century CE and the First Jewish–Roman War, including the Siege of Masada. His most important works were The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews, the Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation. Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for an ostensibly Roman audience and these works provide valuable insight into first century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity. Josephus introduces himself in Greek as Iōsēpos, son of Matthias and he was the second-born son of Matthias. His older full-blooded brother was also called Matthias and their mother was an aristocratic woman who descended from the royal and formerly ruling Hasmonean dynasty. Josephuss paternal grandparents were Josephus and his wife—an unnamed Hebrew noblewoman, distant relatives of each other and he descended through his father from the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, which was the first of the 24 orders of priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Josephus was a descendant of the high priest Jonathon, born and raised in Jerusalem, Josephus was educated alongside his brother. In his early twenties, he traveled to negotiate with Emperor Nero for the release of 12 Jewish priests, Josephus successfully fought the Roman army in Galilee, until he was captured by the Romans during the height of the war. After the Jewish garrison of Yodfat fell under siege, the Romans invaded, killing thousands, according to Josephus, he was trapped in a cave with 40 of his companions in July 67 CE. The Romans asked the group to surrender, but they refused, Josephus suggested a method of collective suicide, they drew lots and killed each other, one by one, counting to every third person. Two men were left, who surrendered to the Roman forces, in 69 CE, Josephus was released. According to his account, he acted as a negotiator with the defenders during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, in which his parents and first wife died. While being confined at Yodfat, Josephus claimed to have experienced a divine revelation, after the prediction came true, he was released by Vespasian, who considered his gift of prophecy to be divine. In 71 CE, he went to Rome in the entourage of Titus, becoming a Roman citizen, in addition to Roman citizenship, he was granted accommodation in conquered Judaea and a decent, if not extravagant, pension. While in Rome and under Flavian patronage, Josephus wrote all of his known works, although he uses Josephus, he appears to have taken the Roman praenomen Titus and nomen Flavius from his patrons
14.
Movses Khorenatsi
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Movses Khorenatsi was a prominent Armenian historian from the period of Late Antiquity and the author of the History of Armenia. Khorenatsi is credited with the earliest known work on the history of Armenia written in Armenian, but was also a poet, or hymn writer. The History of Armenia was written at the behest of Prince Sahak of the Bagratuni dynasty and has had an impact on Armenian historiography. It was used and quoted extensively by later medieval Armenian authors, Khorenatsi is considered to be the father of Armenian history, and is sometimes referred to as the Armenian Herodotus. Khorenatsis work became the first attempt of a history of Armenia. Movses identified himself as a disciple of Mesrop Mashtots, inventor of the Armenian alphabet. Movses was believed to have born in the village of Khorni in the Armenian province of Taron or Turuberan sometime in 410. However, some contend that if he was born here. They instead move the location of his birth from Taron to the Armenian province of Syunik and he received his education in Syunik and was later sent to be taught under the auspices of Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet, and Catholicos Sahak Partev. The students left Armenia sometime between 432 and 435, first they went to Edessa where they studied at the local libraries. Then they moved towards Jerusalem and Alexandria, after studying in Alexandria for five to six years, Movses and his classmates returned to Armenia, only to find that Mesrop and Sahak had died. Given this atmosphere and persecution by the Persians, Movses went into hiding in a village near Vagharshapat and lived in relative seclusion for several decades. Gyut, Catholicos of All Armenians, one day met Movses while traveling through the area and, unaware of his true identity, Movses was initially silent, but after Gyuts students encouraged him to speak, Movses made a marvelous speech at the dinner table. One of the Catholicos students was able to identify Movses as a person Gyut had been searching for, it was understood that Gyut was one of Movses former classmates. Gyut embraced Movses and, being either a Chalcedonian Christian, or, at least, tolerant of them, brought his back from seclusion. Movses agreed to do so and he finished his book sometime in 482 and his work is a first historical record that covered the whole history of Armenia from a very ancient period until the death of the historian. His History served as a textbook to study the history of Armenia until the eighteenth century, Movses lived for several more years, and he died sometime in the late 490s. Three possible early references to Movses in other sources are usually identified, but there is no indication in Parpetsi that this Movses had composed any historical works
15.
Talmud
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The Talmud is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. It is also referred to as Shas, a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, the six orders. Talmud translates literally as instruction in Hebrew, and the term may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah, the entire Talmud consists of 63 tractates, and in standard print is over 6,200 pages long. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law, Rabbis expounded and debated the Torah and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works, though some may have made private notes, for example of court decisions. It is during this period that rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing, the earliest recorded oral Torah may have been of the midrashic form, in which halakhic discussion is structured as exegetical commentary on the Pentateuch. But an alternative form, organized by subject matter instead of by biblical verse, became dominant about the year 200 CE, the Oral Torah was far from monolithic, rather, it varied among various schools. The most famous two were the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, in general, all valid opinions, even the non-normative ones, were recorded in the Talmud. The oldest full manuscript of the Talmud, known as the Munich Talmud, each tractate is divided into chapters,517 in total, that are both numbered according to the Hebrew alphabet and given names, usually using the first one or two words in the first mishnah. A perek may continue over several pages, each perek will contain several mishnayot with their accompanying exchanges that form the building-blocks of the Gemara, the name for a passage of gemara is a sugya. A sugya, including baraita or tosefta, will comprise a detailed proof-based elaboration of a Mishnaic statement. A sugya may, and often does, range widely off the subject of the mishnah, in a given sugya, scriptural, Tannaic and Amoraic statements are cited to support the various opinions. In so doing, the Gemara will highlight semantic disagreements between Tannaim and Amoraim, and compare the Mishnaic views with passages from the Baraita. Rarely are debates formally closed, in instances, the final word determines the practical law. There is a literature on the procedural principles to be used in settling the practical law when disagreements exist, see under #Logic. The Mishnah is a compilation of legal opinions and debates, statements in the Mishnah are typically terse, recording brief opinions of the rabbis debating a subject, or recording only an unattributed ruling, apparently representing a consensus view. The rabbis recorded in the Mishnah are known as the Tannaim, the Mishnahs topical organization thus became the framework of the Talmud as a whole. But not every tractate in the Mishnah has a corresponding Gemara, also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the Mishnah. In addition to the Mishnah, other tannaitic teachings were current at about the time or shortly thereafter
16.
Alexandria
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Alexandria is the second largest city and a major economic centre in Egypt, extending about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is Egypts largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypts imports and exports and it is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also an important tourist destination, Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c.331 BC by Alexander the Great. Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome, Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια. Alexanders chief architect for the project was Dinocrates, Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. The city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks, Jews, the city was later plundered and lost its significance. Just east of Alexandria, there was in ancient times marshland, as early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was rediscovered under water. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore also and it continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city, after Alexanders departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandrias continuous development, the Heptastadion, inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and and it became Egypts main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds. Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there, in AD115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami, the Islamic prophet, Muhammads first interaction with the people of Egypt occurred in 628, during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha. He sent Hatib bin Abi Baltaeh with a letter to the king of Egypt and Alexandria called Muqawqis In the letter Muhammad said, I invite you to accept Islam, Allah the sublime, shall reward you doubly. But if you refuse to do so, you bear the burden of the transgression of all the Copts
17.
Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
18.
Ficus
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Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The common fig is a species native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region. The fruit of most other species are edible though they are usually of only local economic importance or eaten as bushfood. However, they are important food resources for wildlife. Figs are also of cultural importance throughout the tropics, both as objects of worship and for their many practical uses. Fig species are characterized by their unique inflorescence and distinctive pollination syndrome, the specific identification of many of the species can be difficult, but figs as a group are relatively easy to recognize. Many have aerial roots and a shape or habit. The fig fruit is an inflorescence, sometimes referred to as a syconium. Finally, there are three traits that together are unique to figs. There are no unambiguous older fossils of Ficus, however, current molecular clock estimates indicate that Ficus is a relatively ancient genus being at least 60 million years old, and possibly as old as 80 million years. The main radiation of extant species, however, may have taken more recently. Moreover, figs with different plant habits have undergone radiation in different biogeographic regions. In the tropics, it is common to find that Ficus is the most species-rich plant genus in a particular forest. In Asia as many as 70 or more species can co-exist, Ficus species richness declines with an increase in latitude in both hemispheres. Figs are keystone species in many rainforest ecosystems and their fruit are a key resource for some frugivores including fruit bats, capuchin monkeys, langurs and mangabeys. They are even more important for some birds, asian barbets, pigeons, hornbills, fig-parrots and bulbuls are examples of taxa that may almost entirely subsist on figs when these are in plenty. The citrus long-horned beetle, for example, has larvae that feed on wood, including that of fig trees, similarly, the sweet potato whitefly is frequently found as a pest on figs grown as potted plants and is spread through the export of these plants to other localities
19.
Rashi
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His commentary on the Talmud, which covers nearly all of the Babylonian Talmud, has been included in every edition of the Talmud since its first printing by Daniel Bomberg in the 1520s. His commentary on Tanakh—especially on the Chumash —is an indispensable aid to students of all levels, the latter commentary alone serves as the basis for more than 300 supercommentaries which analyze Rashis choice of language and citations, penned by some of the greatest names in rabbinic literature. Rashis surname, Yitzhaki, derives from his fathers name, Yitzhak, the acronym is sometimes also fancifully expanded as Rabban Shel YIsrael which means the rabbi of Israel, or as Rabbenu SheYichyeh. He may be cited in Hebrew and Aramaic texts as Shlomo son of Rabbi Yitzhak, Shlomo son of Yitzhak, Shlomo Yitzhaki, in older literature, Rashi is sometimes referred to as Jarchi or Yarhi, his abbreviated name being interpreted as Rabbi Shlomo Yarhi. Simon and Wolf claimed that only Christian scholars referred to Rashi as Jarchi, bernardo de Rossi, however, demonstrated that Hebrew scholars also referred to Rashi as Yarhi. The evolution of this term has been thoroughly traced, Rashi was an only child born at Troyes, Champagne, in northern France. His mothers brother was Simon the Elder, Rabbi of Mainz, Simon was a disciple of Rabbeinu Gershom Meor HaGolah, who died that same year. In his voluminous writings, Rashi himself made no claim at all. The main early rabbinical source about his ancestry, Responsum No.29 by Solomon Luria and his fame later made him the subject of many legends. One tradition contends that his parents were childless for many years, Rashis father, Yitzhak, a poor winemaker, once found a precious jewel and was approached by non-Jews who wished to buy it to adorn their idol. Yitzhak agreed to travel with them to their land, but en route, another legend also states that Rashis parents moved to Worms, Germany while Rashis mother was pregnant. As she walked down one of the streets in the Jewish quarter. She turned and pressed herself against a wall, which opened to receive her and this miraculous niche is still visible in the wall of the Worms Synagogue. According to tradition, Rashi was first brought to learn Torah by his father on Shavuot day at the age of five and his father was his main Torah teacher until his death when Rashi was still a youth. At the age of 17 he married and soon went to learn in the yeshiva of Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar in Worms. When Rabbi Yaakov died in 1064, Rashi continued learning in Worms for another year in the yeshiva of his relative, Rabbi Isaac ben Eliezer Halevi, Rashis teachers were students of Rabbeinu Gershom and Rabbi Eliezer Hagadol, leading Talmudists of the previous generation. From his teachers, Rashi imbibed the traditions pertaining to the Talmud as they had been passed down for centuries, as well as an understanding of the Talmuds unique logic. Rashi took concise, copious notes from what he learned in yeshiva and he returned to Troyes at the age of 25, after which time his mother died, and he was asked to join the Troyes Beth din
20.
Torah
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The Torah is the central reference of Judaism. It has a range of meanings and it can most specifically mean the first five books of the twenty-four books of the Tanakh, and it usually includes the rabbinic commentaries. In rabbinic literature the word Torah denotes both the five books and the Oral Torah, the Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, traditionally, the words of the Torah are written on a scroll by a scribe in Hebrew. A Torah portion is read publicly at least once every three days in the presence of a congregation, reading the Torah publicly is one of the bases for Jewish communal life. The word Torah in Hebrew is derived from the root ירה, the meaning of the word is therefore teaching, doctrine, or instruction, the commonly accepted law gives a wrong impression. Other translational contexts in the English language include custom, theory, guidance, the earliest name for the first part of the Bible seems to have been The Torah of Moses. This title, however, is neither in the Torah itself. It appears in Joshua and Kings, but it cannot be said to refer there to the entire corpus, in contrast, there is every likelihood that its use in the post-Exilic works was intended to be comprehensive. Other early titles were The Book of Moses and The Book of the Torah, Christian scholars usually refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible as the Pentateuch, a term first used in the Hellenistic Judaism of Alexandria, meaning five books, or as the Law. The Torah starts from the beginning of Gods creating the world, through the beginnings of the people of Israel, their descent into Egypt, and it ends with the death of Moses, just before the people of Israel cross to the promised land of Canaan. Interspersed in the narrative are the teachings given explicitly or implicitly embedded in the narrative. This is followed by the story of the three patriarchs, Joseph and the four matriarchs, God gives to the patriarchs a promise of the land of Canaan, but at the end of Genesis the sons of Jacob end up leaving Canaan for Egypt due to a regional famine. They had heard there was a grain storage and distribution facility in Egypt. Exodus begins the story of Gods revelation to his people of Israel through Moses, Moses receives the Torah from God, and teaches His laws and Covenant to the people of Israel. It also talks about the first violation of the covenant when the Golden Calf was constructed, Exodus includes the instructions on building the Tabernacle and concludes with its actual construction. Leviticus begins with instructions to the Israelites on how to use the Tabernacle, leviticus 26 provides a detailed list of rewards for following Gods commandments and a detailed list of punishments for not following them. Numbers tells how Israel consolidated itself as a community at Sinai, set out from Sinai to move towards Canaan, even Moses sins and is told he would not live to enter the land
21.
Jerusalem Talmud
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The Jerusalem Talmud, also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmuda de-Eretz Yisrael, is a collection of Rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talmud after Palestine or Land of Israel rather than Jerusalem is considered accurate by some because, while the work was certainly composed in the West. The Jerusalem Talmud predates its counterpart, the Babylonian Talmud, by about 200 years, the word Talmud itself is often defined as instruction. Both versions of the Talmud comprise two parts, the Mishnah, which was finalized by Judah the Prince around the year 200 CE, the Gemara is what differentiates the Jerusalem Talmud from its Babylonian counterpart. The Jerusalem Gemara contains the discussions of generations of rabbis in the Land of Israel. 350-400 CE into a series of books, the Babylonian Gemara, which is the second recension of the Mishnah, was compiled by the scholars of Babylonia, and was completed c. The Babylonian Talmud is often seen as authoritative and is studied much more than the Jerusalem Talmud. In general, the terms Gemara or Talmud, without further qualification, the remaining scholars who lived in the Galilee area decided to continue their teaching activity in the learning centers that had existed since Mishnaic times. The Jerusalem Talmud probably originated in Tiberias in the School of Johanan bar Nappaha and it is a compilation of teachings of the schools of Tiberias, Sepphoris and Caesarea. It is written largely in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, a Western Aramaic variety that differs from its Babylonian counterpart and this Talmud is a synopsis of the analysis of the Mishnah that was developed over the course of nearly 200 years by the Talmudic Academies in Syria Palaestina. Because of their location, the sages of these Academies devoted considerable attention to analysis of the laws of the Land of Israel. Traditionally, the redaction of this Talmud was thought to have brought to an abrupt end around 425. In recent years scholars have come to doubt the causal link between the abolition of the Nasi and the seeming incompletion of the final redaction. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Yerushalmi has not been preserved in its entirety, large portions of it were entirely lost at an early date, while other parts exist only in fragments. Of the four used for this first edition, only one is now in existence. Of the six orders of the Mishnah, the fifth, Ḳodashim, is missing entirely from the Palestinian Talmud, while the sixth, Ṭohorot, the Leiden Jerusalem Talmud is today the only extant complete manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud. It was copied in 1289 by Rabbi Yechiel ben Yekutiel the Physician of Rome, dūkeh, instead of rūbeh/rabah, saying with a play on words, “The members of Isses household would say in the name of Isse, Why is it called dūkeh. It is because she pounds with him. ”The Hebrew word for pound is dakh, yemenite Jews still call it dūkeh
22.
Judea
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Judea or Judæa is the ancient Hebrew and Israelite biblical, the exonymic Roman/English, and the modern-day name of the mountainous southern part of Canaan-Israel. As a consequence of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in 135 CE the region was renamed and merged with Roman Syria to form Syria Palaestina by the victorious Roman Emperor Hadrian, a large part of Judea was included in Jordanian West Bank between 1948 and 1967. The name Judea is a Greek and Roman adaptation of the name Judah, nimrud Tablet K.3751, dated c.733 BCE, is the earliest known record of the name Judah. Judea was sometimes used as the name for the entire region, in 200 CE Sextus Julius Africanus, cited by Eusebius, described Nazara as a village in Judea. Judea was the used by English-speakers until the Jordanian occupation of the area in 1948. Jordan called the area ad-difa’a al-gharbiya, yehuda is the Hebrew term used for the area in modern Israel since the region was captured and occupied by Israel in 1967. The classical Roman-Jewish historian Josephus wrote, In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath and this is the northern boundary of Judea. The southern parts of Judea, if they be measured lengthways, are bounded by a village adjoining to the confines of Arabia, however, its breadth is extended from the river Jordan to Joppa. The city Jerusalem is situated in the middle, on which account some have, with sagacity enough. This country begins at Mount Libanus, and the fountains of Jordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of Tiberias and its inhabitants are a mixture of Jews and Syrians. And thus have I, with all possible brevity, described the country of Judea, Judea is a mountainous region, part of which is considered a desert. It varies greatly in height, rising to an altitude of 1,020 m in the south at Mount Hebron,30 km southwest of Jerusalem, and descending to as much as 400 m below sea level in the east of the region. The climate, accordingly, moves between Mediterranean in the west and desert climate in the east, with a strip of steppe climate in the middle, major urban areas in the region include Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Gush Etzion, Jericho and Hebron. Geographers divide Judea into several regions, the Hebron hills, the Jerusalem saddle, the Bethel hills and the Judean desert east of Jerusalem, the hills are distinct for their anticline structure. In ancient times the hills were forested, and the Bible records agriculture, animals are still grazed today, with shepherds moving them between the low ground to the hilltops as summer approaches, while the slopes are still layered with centuries-old stone terracing. The Jewish Revolt against the Romans ended in the devastation of vast areas of the Judaean countryside, regardless, the Northern Kingdom was conquered into the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE. Judea is central to much of the narrative of the Torah, with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, the Babylonian Empire fell to the conquests of Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE. Judea lost its independence to the Romans in the 1st century BCE, by becoming first a tributary kingdom, then a province, queen Alexandra Salome had recently died, and a civil war broke out between her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II
23.
Hillel the Elder
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Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud and he is popularly known as the author of two sayings, If I am not for myself who is for me. And being for my own self, what am I, and the expression of the ethic of reciprocity, or Golden Rule, That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah, the rest is the explanation, go and learn. Hillel was born in Babylon and, according to the Iggeret of Rav Sherira Gaon, Hillel descended from the Tribe of Benjamin on his fathers side, and from the family of David on his mothers side. Only Hillels brother Shebna is mentioned, he was a merchant, Hillel lived in Jerusalem during the time of King Herod and the Roman emperor Augustus. In the Midrash compilation Sifre, the periods of Hillels life are made parallel to those in the life of Moses. Both lived 120 years, and at the age of forty Hillel went to the Land of Israel, forty years he spent in study, a biographical sketch can be constructed, that Hillel went to Jerusalem in the prime of his life and attained a great age. His activity of forty years likely covered the period of 30 BCE to 10 CE, according to the Mishnah Hillel went to Jerusalem with the intention of studying biblical exposition and tradition at the age of 40 in 70 BCE. On that occasion, it is narrated, they resigned their position as Nasi in favor of Hillel. After the resignation of the Benei Betheira, Hillel was recognized as the highest authority among the Pharisees, whatever Hillels position, his authority was sufficient to introduce those decrees handed down in his name. The most famous of his enactments was the Prozbul, an institution that, a likewise tendency is found in another of Hillels institutions, having reference to the sale of houses. These two are the only institutions handed down in Hillels name, although the words that introduce the show that there were others. Of other official acts no mention is found in the sources, some of Hillel the Elders teachings remain commonly known. However, at least two other notable Hillels came after him, and some scholars have suggested that some attributed to Hillel may have originated from them. In mentioning these characteristics, which the Haggadah attributes to Moses brother and he considered love of man the kernel of Jewish teaching. The comparative response to the challenge of a Gentile who asked that the Torah be explained to him while he stood on one foot, illustrates the character differences between Shammai and Hillel. Hillels gentleness and patience are illustrated in an anecdote that describes how two men made a wager on the question of whether Hillel could be made angry, though they questioned him and made insulting allusions to his Babylonian origin, they were unsuccessful
24.
Judah bar Ilai
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Judah bar Ilai, also known as Judah ben Ilai, Rabbi Judah, was a 4th generation tanna of the 2nd Century and son of Rabbi Ilai I. Of the many Judahs in the Talmud, he is the one referred to simply as Rabbi Judah and is the most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah, Judah bar Ilai was born at Usha in the Galilee. His teachers were his father, who had studied with Rabbi Eliezer and he was ordained by Rabbi Judah ben Baba at a time when the Roman government forbade ordination. Judah bar Ilai was forced to flee Hadrians persecution, on the grave is a handsome tomb at which candles are lit. Italian pilgrim Moses Basola wrote, They say that once a Muslim woman climbed the tree on the grave in order to gather almonds, but she showered them with curses. She fell off the tree, breaking all her limbs and she then pledged the gold bracelets on her hands to the saint, purchasing olive trees with them. Subsequently others made pledges as well, and at present he has four hundred olive trees and this episode of the woman took place about sixty years ago. Many of Judahs maxims and proverbs have likewise been preserved, they include, Great is beneficence, Great is toil, it honoreth the toiler. Who teacheth his son no trade, guideth him to robbery, Judah lived to a ripe old age, surviving his teachers and all of his colleagues. Among his disciples who paid him the last honors was Judah ha-Nasi and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Singer, Isidore, et al. eds. New York, Funk & Wagnalls Company
25.
Sukkah
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A sukkah or succah is a temporary hut constructed for use during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. It is topped with branches and often decorated with autumnal. The Book of Vayikra describes it as a symbolic wilderness shelter and it is common for Jews to eat, sleep and otherwise spend time in the sukkah. The halakha requires eating and traditionally sleeping in the sukkah, however, Jews are not expected to remain in the sukkah if they would be very uncomfortable there. For this reason, Jews living at northern latitudes will generally not sleep in the due to the cold temperatures of autumn nights. Some Jews in these locales will spend time in the sukkah eating and relaxing. When rain falls on the sukkah, one is not required to stay inside, the Mishna in Sukkah 28b compares rain falling on a sukkah to a master who receives a drink from his servant and then throws it back in the servants face. The analogy is that through the rainfall, God is showing displeasure with the performance of the mitzvah by not allowing the Jews to fulfill their obligation of sitting in the sukkah. In Israel and other climates, observant Jews will often conduct all their eating, studying. Many Jews will not eat or drink anything outside the sukkah, others will drink or eat fruit outside the sukkah. In Israel, it is common practice for hotels, restaurants, snack shops, all Lubavitcher Hasidim and some Belzer Hasidim do not sleep in the sukkah due to its intrinsic holiness. Though the halakha doesnt obligate one to eat or sleep in the if it is raining. A popular social activity which involves people visiting each others Sukkot has become known as Sukkah hopping, food is laid out so that participants will be able to recite the various required blessings. According to halakha, a sukkah is a structure consisting of a made of organic material which has been disconnected from the ground. A sukkah must have 3 walls and it should be at least three feet tall, and be positioned so that all or part of its roof is open to the sky. In practice, the walls of a sukkah can be constructed from any material that will withstand a normally anticipated terrestrial wind, if the material is not rigid and therefore will sway in the wind, the sukkah is not kosher. Others, such as the Chazon Ish, permit motion to, a sukkah can be built on the ground or on an open porch or balcony. Indeed, many observant Jews who design their homes porch or deck will do so in a fashion that aligns with their sukkah-building needs
26.
Sukkot
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It is a biblical Jewish holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei. During the existence of the Jerusalem Temple it was one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which the Israelites were commanded to perform a pilgrimage to the Temple. The more elaborate religious significance from the Book of Leviticus is that of commemorating the Exodus, the holiday lasts seven days in Israel and eight in the diaspora. The first day is a Shabbat-like holiday when work is forbidden and this is followed by intermediate days called Chol Hamoed, when certain work is permitted. The festival is closed with another Shabbat-like holiday called Shemini Atzeret, Shemini Atzeret coincides with the eighth day of Sukkot outside of Israel. The Hebrew word sukkōt is the plural of sukkah, booth or tabernacle, a sukkah is the name of the temporary dwelling in which farmers would live during harvesting, a fact connecting to the agricultural significance of the holiday stressed by the Book of Exodus. Throughout the holiday, meals are eaten inside the sukkah and many people there as well. On each day of the holiday it is mandatory to perform a ceremony with the Four Species. The origins of Sukkot are both historical and agricultural, historically, Sukkot commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Agriculturally, Sukkot is a harvest festival and is referred to as Chag HaAsif. Sukkot is a holiday, with the first day celebrated as a full festival with special prayer services. The seventh day of Sukkot is called Hoshana Rabbah and has a special observance of its own, outside Israel, the first and last two days are celebrated as full festivals. The intermediate days are known as Chol HaMoed, according to Halakha, some types of work are forbidden during Chol HaMoed. In Israel many businesses are closed during this time, throughout the week of Sukkot, meals are eaten in the sukkah and the males sleep there, although the requirement is waived in case of rain. Every day, a blessing is recited over the Lulav and the Etrog. Observance of Sukkot is detailed in the Book of Nehemiah 8, 13-18, Zechariah 14, 16-19 and Leviticus 23, 34-44 in the Bible, the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the sukkah walls can be constructed of any material. The walls can be free-standing or include the sides of a building or porch, the roof must be of organic material, known as schach, such as leafy tree overgrowth, schach mats or palm fronds. It is customary to decorate the interior of the sukkah with hanging decorations of the four species
27.
Lod
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Lod is a mixed Jewish-Arab city 15 km southeast of Tel Aviv in the Central District of Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 72,819, the name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod, and it was a significant Judean town from the Maccabean Period to the early Christian period. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War most of the citys Arab inhabitants were expelled in the 1948 Palestinian exodus from Lydda, the town was resettled by Jewish immigrants, most of them from Arab countries, alongside 1,056 Arabs who remained. Israels main international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport is located on the outskirts of the city, the Hebrew name Lod appears in the Bible as a town of Benjamin, founded by Shamed or Shamer. In the New Testament, it appears as its Greek form, the city also finds reference in an Islamic Hadith, as the location of the battlefield where the antichrist will be slain before the Day of Judgment. Pottery finds have dated the citys initial settlement to 5600–5250 BC, the earliest written record is in a list of Canaanite towns drawn up by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III at Karnak in 1465 BC. From the fifth century BC until the Roman conquest in 70 CE, according to Martin Gilbert, during the Hasmonean period, Jonathan Maccabee and his brother Simon Maccabaeus enlarged the area under Jewish control, which included conquering the city. In 43 BC, Cassius, the Roman governor of Syria, sold the inhabitants of Lod into slavery, during the First Jewish–Roman War, the Roman proconsul of Syria, Cestius Gallus, razed the town on his way to Jerusalem in 66 CE. It was occupied by Emperor Vespasian in 68 CE, in the period following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Rabbi Tarfon, who appears in many Tannaitic and Jewish legal discussions, served as a rabbinic authority in Lod. During the Kitos War, 115-117 CE, the Roman army laid siege to Lod, torah study was outlawed by the Romans and pursued mostly in the underground. The distress became so great, the patriarch Rabban Gamaliel II, other rabbis disagreed with this ruling. Lydda was next taken and many of the Jews were executed, in 200 CE, emperor Septimius Severus elevated the town to the status of a city, calling it Colonia Lucia Septimia Severa Diospolis. The name Diospolis may have been bestowed earlier, possibly by Hadrian, at that point, most of its inhabitants were Christian. The earliest known bishop is Aëtius, a friend of Arius, in December 415, the Council of Diospolis was held here to try Pelagius, he was acquitted. In the sixth century, the city was renamed Georgiopolis after St. George, a soldier in the guard of the emperor Diocletian, the Church of St. George is named for him. The Madaba map shows Lydda as a city under a black inscription with a cluster of buildings. An isolated building with a plaza in front of it might represent the St. George shrine. The population of al-Ludd was relocated to Ramla, as well, with the relocation of its inhabitants and the construction of the White Mosque in Ramla, al-Ludd lost its importance and fell into decay
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Ells
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In English-speaking countries, these included the Flemish ell, English ell and French ell, some of which are thought to derive from a double ell. In England, the ell was usually 45 in, or a yard and it was mainly used in the tailoring business but is now obsolete. Although the exact length was never defined in English law, standards were kept, the Viking ell was the measure from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about 18 inches. The Viking ell or primitive ell was used in Iceland up to the 13th century, by the 13th century, a law set the stika as equal to 2 ells which was the English ell of the time. An ell-wand or ellwand was a rod of length one ell used for official measurement, edward I of England required that every town have one. In Scotland, the Belt of Orion was called the Kings Ellwand, the Scottish ell was standardised in 1661, with the exemplar to be kept in the custody of Edinburgh. It comes from Middle English elle and it was used in the popular expression Gie im an inch, an hell tak an ell. The Ell Shop in Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross, is so called from the 18th century iron ell-stick attached to one corner, once used to measure cloth and other commodities in the adjacent market-place. The shaft of the old 17th century Kincardine Mercat cross stands in the square of Fettercairn, Scottish measures were made obsolete, and English measurements made standard in Scotland, by act of parliament in 1824. The Scottish ell was equivalent to, Scottish measures, 3 1⁄12 feet Metric system,94.1318 cm Imperial system,1.03 international yards,37.1 inches This article incorporates text from Dwellys Gaelic Dictionary. Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland Scottish National Dictionary and Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue Weights and Measures, by D. Richard Torrance, SAFHS, Edinburgh,1996, ISBN 1-874722-09-9
29.
Tombs of the Kings (Jerusalem)
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The Tombs of the Kings are a collection of rock cut tombs in East Jerusalem believed to be the burial site of Queen Helene of Adiabene. According to this theory, Queen Helena chose the site to bury her son Isates, the site is just east of the intersection of Nablus Road and Saladin Street. The gate of the property is marked Tombeau des Rois, French for Tomb of the Kings, as of May 2016, the Tombs of the Kings cannot normally be visited. As property of the French State, they are used sporadically as a venue for cultural events organised by the French Consulate. In 1847 the Ottoman governor of Jerusalem started the excavation in the site, the excavation was then followed in 1863 by French archaeologists, was acquired by Pereire brothers, famous bankers of the Second Empire, who gave to France in 1886. The tombs are located underneath a piece of land that has a stone house on top of it. The house was built and inhabited by Irhimeh, a Jerusalemite family, up until mid 1990s, the remains recovered from the excavations are on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The tomb was described by the Greek geographer Pausanias as the second most beautiful tomb in the world, from the house there is a 9 meter wide staircase that was originally paved and leads to a forecourt. The rain water is collected in baths, which are carved in the steps, at the bottom of the stairs there is a stone wall to the left with a gate. This gate leads to a courtyard that was cut from the rock at the same date, the dimensions of this courtyard are roughly 27 meters long from north to south and 25 meters wide from west to east. The entrance to the tombs is via this courtyard, the tombs are entered via a rock-cut arch in the western side. The 28-meter facade was crowned with three pyramids, which no longer exist, and decorated with reliefs of grapes, plexus leaves, acorns and fruit, the architrave was originally supported by two pillars, fragments of which were found in the excavations. The tombs are arranged on two levels around a central chamber, with four rooms upstairs and three rooms downstairs, the central chamber itself is entered from the courtyard via an antechamber that goes down into a dimly lit maze of chambers. The access from the antechamber to the exterior courtyard could be sealed closed by rolling a stone across it. In the first century A. D. a secret mechanism operated by water pressure moved the stone, probably a small amount of water pressure activated a system of weights to open the tomb. Two of the eight burial chambers have arcosolia, resting places made of a bench with an arch over it, some of the arcosolia have triangular niches where oil lamps were placed to give light during the burial process. The two most common types of tombs in the first century CE are found in this tomb complex, shaft tombs were long narrow shafts in which the deceased were placed and closed with a stone slab which probably had the name of the occupant inscribed on it. Channels in the center of the shafts were probably carved to drain the water that seeped through the rock
30.
Hebrew
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
31.
Syriac language
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Syriac /ˈsɪri. æk/, also known as Syriac Aramaic, is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent and Eastern Arabia. Indeed, Syriac literature comprises roughly 90% of the extant Aramaic literature, Old Aramaic was adopted by the Neo-Assyrian Empire when they conquered the various Aramean city-kingdoms to its west. The Achaemenid Empire, which rose after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, also adopted Old Aramaic as its official language, during the course of the third and fourth centuries AD, the inhabitants of the region began to embrace Christianity. Along with Latin and Greek, Syriac became one of the three most important Christian languages in the centuries of the Christian Era. Primarily a Christian medium of expression, Syriac had a cultural and literary influence on the development of Arabic. Syriac remains the language of Syriac Christianity to this day. Syriac is a Middle Aramaic language and, as such, a language of the Northwestern branch of the Semitic family and it is written in the Syriac alphabet, a derivation of the Aramaic alphabet. Syriac was the local accent of Aramaic in Edessa, that evolved under the influence of Church of the East and it has been found as far afield as Hadrians Wall in Ancient Britain, with inscriptions written by Assyrian and Aramean soldiers of the Roman Empire. Modern Syriac/Modern Syriac Aramaic is an occasionally used to refer to the modern Eastern Aramaic languages. In this terminology, Modern Syriac is divided into, Modern Western Syriac Aramaic, note however that these are sometimes excluded from the category of Modern Syriac. The modern varieties are, therefore, not discussed in this article, in 132 BC, the kingdom of Osroene was founded in Edessa and Proto-Syriac evolved in that kingdom. Many Syriac-speakers still look to Edessa as the cradle of their language, there are about eighty extant early Syriac inscriptions, dated to the first three centuries AD. All of these examples of the language are non-Christian. As an official language, Syriac was given a relatively coherent form, style, in the 3rd century, churches in Edessa began to use Syriac as the language of worship. There is evidence that the adoption of Syriac, the language of the Assyrian people, was to effect mission, much literary effort was put into the production of an authoritative translation of the Bible into Syriac, the Peshitta. At the same time, Ephrem the Syrian was producing the most treasured collection of poetry, in 489, many Syriac-speaking Christians living in the eastern reaches of the Roman Empire fled to the Sassanid Empire to escape persecution and growing animosity with Greek-speaking Christians. The Christological differences with the Church of the East led to the bitter Nestorian schism in the Syriac-speaking world, as a result, Syriac developed distinctive western and eastern varieties. Syriac literature is by far the most prodigious of the various Aramaic languages and its corpus covers poetry, prose, theology, liturgy, hymnody, history, philosophy, science, medicine and natural history
32.
City of David
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The City of David (Hebrew, is an Israeli settlement and the archaeological site which is speculated to compose the original urban core of ancient Jerusalem. In 1997 management of the park was taken over by Ir David Foundation, the international community regards Israeli settlements illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. It is best known for its Iron Age structures attributed to Judean kings, the site is now located under the Arab neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh, and extends down from the southern city walls of Jerusalems Old City. Not far from that area a number of bullae were unearthed, bearing the names of Yehucal son of Shelemiah and Gedaliah son of Pashhur. The area is one of the most intensively excavated sites in the Holy Land and it is on a narrow ridge running south from the Temple Mount in the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem. The City of David is highly controversial in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and it is located in Wadi Hilweh, on the western ridge of the predominately Arab neighborhood of Silwan. Jews constitute the majority of the population, the construction of the 16,000 m2 Kedem Compound, approved in April 2014, was denounced by UNESCO in October 2016. Archaeological exploration of the began in the nineteenth century, with excavations undertaken by Charles Warren in 1867. Warren was sent by the Palestine Exploration Fund, Warren conducted an excavation of the area south of the Temple Mount and recovered a massive fortification. The finding led him to conduct excavations at the area south to mount temple. There he revealed a shaft coming from underground to the surface and he suggested that the shaft was used to supply water to the city. Today this shaft is called after his discoverer warrens shaft, Warren believed that he is excavating the old biblical city of David. There have been numerous excavations since and several digs are currently underway, complete lists of the Ottoman Era digs, British Mandate era digs, Jordanian era digs and of the early Israeli era digs are available at the website of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The area includes sites of archaeological interest, notably the Siloam tunnel, Warrens shaft. All of these water supply systems drew their water from the Gihon Spring which lies on the Ophels eastern slope, the site of the Gihon Spring and Pool of Siloam are incorporated in an archaeological park open to the public. Visitors can wade through the Siloam Tunnel, through which the waters of the ancient spring still flow, chalcolithic remains include bits of pottery found in clefts in the bedrock by Macalister and Duncan. The expedition also discovered a number of places where the bedrock had been cut in various ways and these included areas where the rock had been smoothed and others where it had been cut to form flow channels. There were also groups of small basins, sometimes called cup marks
33.
Temple Mount
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The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram esh-Sharif, a hill located in the Old City of Jerusalem, is one of the most important religious sites in the world. It has been venerated as a site for thousands of years by Judaism, Christianity. The present site is dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period, the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, Herodian walls and gates with additions dating back to the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods cut through the flanks of the Mount. Currently it can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, which regards it as the place where Gods divine presence is manifested more than in any other place. According to the rabbinic sages whose debates produced the Talmud, it was here the world expanded into its present form. Several passages in the Hebrew Bible indicate that during the time when they were written, the Temple Mount was identified as Mount Zion. The Mount Zion mentioned in the parts of the Book of Isaiah, in the Book of Psalms. The name later migrated for a last time, this time to Jerusalems Western Hill, according to the Bible, both Jewish Temples stood at the Temple Mount, though archaeological evidence only exists for the Second Temple. However, the identification of Solomons Temple with the area of the Temple Mount is widespread, according to the Bible the site should function as the center of all national life—a governmental, judicial and religious center. During the Second Temple period it functioned also as an economic center, according to Jewish tradition and scripture, the First Temple was built by King Solomon the son of King David in 957 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The second was constructed under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE, in the 2nd century, the site was used for a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. It was redeveloped following the Arab conquest, Jewish tradition maintains it is here a Third and final Temple will also be built. The location is the holiest site in Judaism and is the place Jews turn towards during prayer and it was from the Holy of Holies that the High Priest communicated directly with God. The Temple was of importance in Jewish worship, in the Tanakh. In the New Testament it remains the site of events in the life of Jesus. It was to end, proof of a biblical prophecy fulfilled and of Christianitys victory over Judaism with the New Covenant. Among Sunni Muslims, the Mount is widely considered the third holiest site in Islam, revered as the Noble Sanctuary, the location of Muhammads journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, the site is also associated with Jewish biblical prophets who are also venerated in Islam. Muslims preferred to the esplanade as the heart for the Muslim quarter since it had abandoned by Christians
34.
Mikveh
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Mikveh or mikvah is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism. In the Hebrew Bible, the word is employed in its broader sense, several biblical regulations specify that full immersion in water is required to regain ritual purity after ritually impure incidents have occurred. A person was required to be pure in order to enter the Temple. Most forms of impurity can be nullified through immersion in any collection of water. However, some impurities, such as a zav, require living water, living water has the further advantage of being able to purify even while flowing, as opposed to rainwater which must be stationary in order to purify. The mikveh is designed to simplify this requirement, by providing a facility that remains in ritual contact with a natural source of water. In Orthodox Judaism, these regulations are adhered to and, consequently. Before the beginning of the first century BCE, neither written sources, mikvoth appear at the beginning of the first century BCE, and from then on ancient mikvoth can be found throughout the land of Israel as well as in historic communities of the Jewish diaspora. In modern times, mikvoth can be found in most communities in Orthodox Judaism, the traditional rules regarding the construction of a mikveh are based on those specified in classical rabbinical literature. According to these rules, a mikveh must be connected to a spring or well of naturally occurring water. A cistern filled by the rain is also permitted to act as a water supply. Similarly snow, ice and hail are allowed to act as the supply of water to a mikveh, a river that dries up on a regular basis cannot be used because it is presumed to be mainly rainwater, which cannot purify while flowing. Oceans for the most part have the status of natural springs.3 litres, to avoid issues with these rules in large cities, various methods are employed to establish a valid mikveh. One is that tap water is made to flow over the top of a kosher mikveh, a second method is to create a mikveh in a deep pool, place a floor with holes over that and then fill the upper pool with tap water. In this way, it is considered as if the person dipping is actually in the pool of rain water. Traditionally, the mikveh was used by men and women to regain ritual purity after various events, according to regulations laid down in the Torah. The Torah requires full immersion after Keri — normal emissions of semen, whether sexual activity. The latter case is known as tevilath Ezra after Zav/Zavah — abnormal discharges of body fluids after Tzaraath — certain skin condition and it also became customary for Kohanim to fully immerse themselves before Jewish holidays, and the laity of many communities subsequently adopted this practice
35.
Public domain
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The term public domain has two senses of meaning. Anything published is out in the domain in the sense that it is available to the public. Once published, news and information in books is in the public domain, in the sense of intellectual property, works in the public domain are those whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable. Examples for works not covered by copyright which are therefore in the domain, are the formulae of Newtonian physics, cooking recipes. Examples for works actively dedicated into public domain by their authors are reference implementations of algorithms, NIHs ImageJ. The term is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, as rights are country-based and vary, a work may be subject to rights in one country and be in the public domain in another. Some rights depend on registrations on a basis, and the absence of registration in a particular country, if required. Although the term public domain did not come into use until the mid-18th century, the Romans had a large proprietary rights system where they defined many things that cannot be privately owned as res nullius, res communes, res publicae and res universitatis. The term res nullius was defined as not yet appropriated. The term res communes was defined as things that could be enjoyed by mankind, such as air, sunlight. The term res publicae referred to things that were shared by all citizens, when the first early copyright law was first established in Britain with the Statute of Anne in 1710, public domain did not appear. However, similar concepts were developed by British and French jurists in the eighteenth century, instead of public domain they used terms such as publici juris or propriété publique to describe works that were not covered by copyright law. The phrase fall in the domain can be traced to mid-nineteenth century France to describe the end of copyright term. In this historical context Paul Torremans describes copyright as a coral reef of private right jutting up from the ocean of the public domain. Because copyright law is different from country to country, Pamela Samuelson has described the public domain as being different sizes at different times in different countries. According to James Boyle this definition underlines common usage of the public domain and equates the public domain to public property. However, the usage of the public domain can be more granular. Such a definition regards work in copyright as private property subject to fair use rights, the materials that compose our cultural heritage must be free for all living to use no less than matter necessary for biological survival
36.
Jewish Encyclopedia
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The Jewish Encyclopedia is an English encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the history, culture, and state of Judaism and the Jews up to the early 20th century. It was originally published in 12 volumes by Funk and Wagnalls of New York City between 1901 and 1906 and reprinted in the 1960s by KTAV Publishing House and it is now in the public domain and hosted at various sites around the internet. The encyclopedias managing editor was Isidore Singer, the editorial board was chaired by Isaac K. Funk and Frank H. Vizetelly. William Popper served as the assistant revision editor and chief of translation for Vols, in the 20th century, the movements members dispersed to Jewish Studies departments in the United States and Israel. L. Rapoport, David Zvi Hoffman, Heinrich Graetz, etc, of the works cited which are not German—usually the more classical works—the large part are either Hebrew or Arabic. The only heavily cited English-language source of scholarship is Solomon Schechters publications in the Jewish Quarterly Review. Wolfson continues that if a Jewish Encyclopedia in a language were planned for the first time. The Jewish Encyclopedia was heavily used as a source by the 16-volume Jewish Encyclopedia in Russian, published by Brockhaus, the unedited text of the original can be found at the Jewish Encyclopedia website. The site offers both JPEG facsimiles of the articles and Unicode transcriptions of all texts. Thus, for example, to search for Halizah, one would have to know that they have transliterated this as Ḥaliẓah. The alphabetic index ignores diacriticals so it can be useful when searching for an article whose title is known. The scholarly apparatus of citation is thorough, but can be a bit daunting to contemporary users, a list of abbreviations used in the encyclopedia is provided on the Jewish Encyclopedia website. I, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, the Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. II, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. III, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, the Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. IV, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. V, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, VI & VII, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, IX, X, & XI, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co. XII, New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co, schwarz, Leo W. com, maintained by the Kopelman Foundation. Multiple copies at the Internet Archive Hathi Trust
37.
Antiquities of the Jews
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Antiquities of the Jews contains an account of history of the Jewish people, written in Greek for Josephus gentile patrons. In the first ten volumes, Josephus follows the events of the books of the Hebrew Bible beginning with the creation of Adam. The second ten volumes continue the history of the Jewish people beyond the biblical text and this work, along with Josephuss other major work, The Jewish War, provides valuable background material to historians wishing to understand 1st-century AD Judaism and the early Christian period. In the preface of Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus provides his motivation for composing such a large work, josephan scholar Louis Feldman highlights several of the misconceptions about the Jewish people that were being circulated in Josephus time. In particular, the Jews were thought to lack great historical figures and they were also accused of harboring hostility toward non-Jews, and were thought to be generally lacking in loyalty, respect for authority, and charity. With these harsh accusations against the Jews fluttering about the Roman empire, Josephus, formerly Joseph ben Matthias, such a work is often called an apologia, as it pleads the case of a group of people or set of beliefs to a larger audience. In order to accomplish this goal, Josephus omitted certain accounts in the Jewish narrative, for example, the Song of the Sea sung by Moses and the people of Israel after their deliverance at the Red Sea is completely omitted in Josephus text. He does mention, however, that Moses composed a song to God in hexameter—a rather unusual scheme for an ancient Hebrew. Josephus also writes that Abraham taught science to the Egyptians, who in turn taught the Greeks, and that Moses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which like Rome resisted monarchy. Thus, in an attempt to make the Jewish history more palatable to his Greco-Roman audience, in another example, apparently due to his concern with pagan antisemitism, Josephus omitted the entire episode of the golden calf from his account of the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Josephus Judean Antiquities is a source for the history of the Intertestamental period. Josephus also adds an account of his personal life, Vita. The extant copies of work, which all derive from Christian sources. The long one has come to be known as the Testimonium Flavianum, if genuine, it is an early extrabiblical record of Jesus, and as such is sometimes cited as independent evidence for the historical existence of Jesus. The earliest complete Greek manuscript of the Antiquities dates from the eleventh century, one of the best known translations of this work was provided by William Whiston in 1737, which has been in print continuously since then. However, the Loeb Classical Library has a recent translation by Henry St. John Thackeray and Ralph Marcus. A cross-reference apparatus for the Works of Josephus and the Biblical canon also exists
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gottheil, Richard; Seligsohn, M. (1901–1906). "Helena". In Singer, Isidore; et al. Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company., which cites: