1.
Old City (Jerusalem)
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The Old City is a 0.9 square kilometers walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem. Until 1860, when the Jewish neighborhood Mishkenot Shaananim was established, traditionally, the Old City has been divided into four uneven quarters, although the current designations were introduced only in the 19th century. Today, the Old City is roughly divided into the Muslim Quarter, Christian Quarter, Armenian Quarter, the Old Citys monumental defensive walls and city gates were built in the years 1535–1542 by the Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The current population of the Old City resides mostly in the Muslim and Christian quarters. As of 2007 the total population was 36,965, the breakdown of religious groups in 2006 was 27,500 Muslims,5,681 Christians, not including the 790 Armenians, and 3,089 Jews. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Old City was captured by Jordan, today, the Israeli government controls the entire area, which it considers part of its national capital. However, the Jerusalem Law of 1980, which effectively annexed East Jerusalem to Israel, was declared null, East Jerusalem is now regarded by the international community as part of occupied Palestinian territory. In 2010, Jerusalems oldest fragment of writing was found outside the Old Citys walls, according to the Bible, before King Davids conquest of Jerusalem in the 11th century BCE the city was home to the Jebusites. The Bible describes the city as heavily fortified with a city wall. The city ruled by King David, known as Ir David, or the City of David, was southeast of the Old City walls, outside the Dung Gate. His son King Solomon extended the city walls and then, in about 440 BCE, during the Persian period, Nehemiah returned from Babylon, in 41–44 CE, Agrippa, king of Judea, built a new city wall known as the Third Wall. Muslims occupied Jerusalem in the 7th Century under the second caliph and he granted its inhabitants an assurance treaty. Sophronius believed that Umar, a warrior who led an austere life, was a fulfillment of this prophecy. In the account by the Patriarch of Alexandria, Eutychius, it is said that Umar paid a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and sat in its courtyard. Eutychius adds that Umar also wrote a decree which he handed to the Patriarch, in which he prohibited Muslims gathering in prayer at the site. In 1099, Jerusalem was captured by the Western Christian army of the First Crusade and it remained in their hands until recaptured by the Arab Muslims, led by Saladin and he summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city. In 1219, the walls of the city were razed by Muazzim Sultan of Damascus, in 1229, by treaty with Egypt, in 1239 he began to rebuild the walls, but they were demolished again by Daud, the emir of Kerak. In 1243, Jerusalem came again under the control of the Christians, the Kharezmian Tatars took the city in 1244 and Sultan Malik al-Muattam razed the walls, rendering it again defenseless and dealing a heavy blow to the citys status
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Orthodox Judaism
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Orthodox Judaism includes movements such as Modern Orthodox Judaism and Ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Judaism. As of 2001, Orthodox Jews and Jews affiliated with an Orthodox synagogue accounted for approximately 50% of British Jews,26. 5% of Israeli Jews, among those affiliated to a synagogue body, Orthodox Jews represent 70% of British Jewry, and 27% of American Jewry. Orthodoxy is not one single movement or school of thought, there is no single rabbinical body to which all rabbis are expected to belong, or any one organization representing member congregations. In the 20th century, a segment of the Orthodox population disagreed with Modern Orthodoxy, such rabbis viewed innovations and modifications within Jewish law and customs with extreme care and caution. This form of Judaism may be referred to as Haredi Judaism or Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, several local Jewish papers, including New Yorks Jewish Week and Philadelphias Jewish Exponent have also dropped use of the term. According to Rabbi David Bar-Hayim, the term Orthodox Judaism was coined as a response to the rise of Reform Judaism in early 19th century Germany, some researchers attempted to argue that the importance of daily practice and punctilious adherence to Jewish Law relegated theoretical issues to an ancillary status. Others dismissed this view entirely, citing the many debates in ancient rabbinic sources which castigated various heresies without any reference to observance, however, while lacking a uniform doctrine, Orthodox Judaism is basically united in affirming several core beliefs, disavowal of which is considered major blasphemy. As in other aspects, Orthodox positions reflect the mainstream of traditional Rabbinic Judaism through the ages, attempts to codify these were undertaken by several medieval authorities, including Saadia Gaon and Joseph Albo. Yet the 13 Fundamentals expounded by Maimonides in his Commentary on the Mishnah, but in recent centuries the 13 Principles became standard, and are considered binding and cardinal by Orthodox authorities in a virtually universal manner. More specific doctrines refer to the times of Godly salvation and afterlife – in Judaism, Olam haBa and these include belief in divine reward for those who observe the Lords commandments and likewise, punishment meted unto the transgressors. Maimonides reserved one article for this tenet, oft mentioned in sources, stating merely that God rewards. This issue has been subject to debate and interpretation. Nahmanides offered a comprehensive system, with divine remuneration for better or worse both in this world, via natural means, and in a celestial heaven and hell. One of the most important teachings concerning afterlife in Judaism is the Resurrection of the Dead, the Talmud listed deniers of this faith as heretics who shall have no part in the World to Come. Maimoindes specified it apart as a separate article and this particular notion is closely linked with Reward and Punishment. They will live ordinary, corporeal life but will not die, then all mankind shall be resuscitated and be given each his just due. The eternal reward shall be preserved for their soul, as beforehand, preceding the miraculous events linked with afterlife is the Advent of the Messiah, also independently listed among Maimonides Thirteen as a tenet of faith. Orthodox Judaism maintains the historical understanding of Jewish identity, a Jew is someone who was born to a Jewish mother, or who converts to Judaism in accordance with Jewish law and tradition
4.
Synagogue
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A synagogue, also spelled synagog, is a Jewish house of prayer. Synagogues have a hall for prayer, and may also have smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall. Some have a room for Torah study, called the beith midrash beis medrash —בית מדרש. Synagogues are consecrated spaces used for the purpose of prayer, Tanakh reading, study and assembly, halakha holds that communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever ten Jews assemble. Worship can also be carried out alone or with fewer than ten people assembled together, however, halakha considers certain prayers as communal prayers and therefore they may be recited only by a minyan. The synagogue does not replace the long-since destroyed Temple in Jerusalem, israelis use the Hebrew term beyt knesset. Jews of Ashkenazi descent have traditionally used the Yiddish term shul in everyday speech, Sephardi Jews and Romaniote Jews generally use the term kal. Spanish Jews call the synagogue a sinagoga and Portuguese Jews call it an esnoga, persian Jews and some Karaite Jews also use the non-Hebrew term kenesa, which is derived from Aramaic, and some Arab Jews use kenis. Reform and some Conservative Jews use the word temple, the Greek word synagogue is used in English, to cover the preceding possibilities. The all-day Yom Kippur service, in fact, was an event in which the congregation both observed the movements of the kohen gadol as he offered the days sacrifices and prayed for his success. During the Babylonian captivity the Men of the Great Assembly formalized and standardized the language of the Jewish prayers, prior to that people prayed as they saw fit, with each individual praying in his or her own way, and there were no standard prayers that were recited. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple era and this contributed to the continuity of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple, according to many historians. A synagogue dating from between 75 and 50 BCE has been uncovered at a Hasmonean-era winter palace near Jericho, more than a dozen Second Temple era synagogues have been identified by archaeologists. Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue, there is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact, the influence from local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes. Historically, synagogues were built in the architectural style of their time. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall, the styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with mudéjar plasterwork, the surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest and Prague are typical Gothic structures
5.
Architectural style
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An architectural style is characterized by the features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. A style may include such elements as form, method of construction, building materials, styles therefore emerge from the history of a society. They are documented in the subject of architectural history, at any time several styles may be fashionable, and when a style changes it usually does so gradually, as architects learn and adapt to new ideas. Styles often spread to places, so that the style at its source continues to develop in new ways while other countries follow with their own twist. A style may also spread through colonialism, either by foreign colonies learning from their home country, one example is the Spanish missions in California, brought by Spanish priests in the late 18th century and built in a unique style. After a style has gone out of fashion, revivals and re-interpretations may occur, for instance, classicism has been revived many times and found new life as neoclassicism. Each time it is revived, it is different, the Spanish mission style was revived 100 years later as the Mission Revival, and that soon evolved into the Spanish Colonial Revival. Vernacular architecture works slightly differently and is listed separately and it is the native method of construction used by local people, usually using labour-intensive methods and local materials, and usually for small structures such as rural cottages. It varies from region to region even within a country, as western society has developed, vernacular styles have mostly become outmoded due to new technology and to national building standards. Paul Jacobsthal and Josef Strzygowski are among the art historians who followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements of styles across great ranges in time and this type of art history is also known as formalism, or the study of forms or shapes in art. Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often applied to other areas of the visual arts, and then more widely still to music, literature. In architecture stylistic change often follows, and is possible by. While many architectural styles explore harmonious ideals, Mannerism wants to take style a step further and explores the aesthetics of hyperbole, Mannerism is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial qualities. Mannerism favours compositional tension and instability rather than balance and clarity, the definition of Mannerism, and the phases within it, continues to be the subject of debate among art historians. An example of mannerist architecture is the Villa Farnese at Caprarola. in the country side outside of Rome. The proliferation of engravers during the 16th century spread Mannerist styles more quickly than any previous styles, a center of Mannerist design was Antwerp during its 16th-century boom. Through Antwerp, Renaissance and Mannerist styles were introduced in England, Germany. During the Mannerist Renaissance period, architects experimented with using architectural forms to emphasize solid, the Renaissance ideal of harmony gave way to freer and more imaginative rhythms
6.
Byzantine Revival architecture
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The Byzantine Revival was an architectural revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. The basilica followed the rules of 6th century Ravenna architecture, although its order was a clear deviation from the historical Byzantine art. In 1876 Ludwig II of Bavaria commissioned Neo-Byzantine interiors of the externally Romanesque Neuschwanstein Castle, complete with images of Justinian I. Danish architect Theophil Hansen became a supporter of the style in the 1850s, hansens own Neo-Byzantine work include the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, Vienna and the Christuskirche in Matzleindorf. Sophia Cathedral in Pushkin was the earliest and isolated experiment with Byzantine treatment of otherwise neoclassical structures, in 1830s Nicholas I of Russia promoted the so-called Russo-Byzantine style of churches designed by Konstantin Thon. Nicholas I despised true Byzantine art, Thons style in fact had little common with it, true Byzantine art, popularized by Grigory Gagarin and David Grimm, was adopted by Alexander II of Russia as the de facto official style of the Orthodox Church. Byzantine architecture became a vehicle of Orthodox expansion on the frontiers of Empire, however, few buildings were completed in the reign of Alexander II due to financial troubles. Neo-Byzantine cathedrals concentrated in the provinces, the Army bases in Caucasus and Central Asia, the Cossack hosts. Architects David Grimm and Vasily Kosyakov developed a national type of a single-dome Byzantine cathedral with four symmetrical pendentive apses that became de facto standard in 1880s-1890s. The reign of Nicholas II was notable for the turn from this standard back to Hagia Sophia legacy, peaking in the Naval Cathedral in Kronstadt. Russian Neo-Byzantine tradition was terminated by the revolution of 1917 but was continued by emigrant architects in Yugoslavia and Harbin. Francis de Sales Church in Philadelphia, Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, in the early 1980s, Philip Johnson designed a Post-Modernist addition to the Cleveland Play House that reflects Byzantine influences, and could thus be termed Neo-Byzantine. From about 1850 to 1880 in Bristol a related style known as Bristol Byzantine was popular for industrial buildings which combined elements of the Byzantine style with Moorish architecture
7.
Israeli new shekel
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The new shekel is divided into 100 agora. The new shekel has been in use since 1 January 1986, the currency sign for the new shekel ⟨ ₪ ⟩ is a combination of the first Hebrew letters of the words shekel and ẖadash. Alongside the shekel sign, the abbreviations of NIS, שח. The origin of the shekel is from the ancient biblical currency by the same name. Shekel is any of several ancient units of weight or of currency in ancient Israel, initially, it may have referred to a weight of barley. In ancient Israel, the shekel was known to be about 180 grains, from the formation of the modern State of Israel on 14 May 1948 through 1952 banknotes continued to be issued by the Anglo-Palestine Bank as Palestine pound which was pegged to the British Pound. In 1952, the Anglo-Palestine Bank changed its name to Bank Leumi Le-Yisrael, the Israeli pound was the currency of the State of Israel from June 1952 until 23 February 1980, when it was replaced with the shekel on 24 February 1980. From 1955, after the Bank of Israel was established and took over the duty of issuing banknotes, only the Hebrew name was used, along with the symbol I£. The pegging to the British Pound was abolished on 1 January 1954, and in 1960, during the 1960s, a debate over the non-Hebrew name of the Israeli currency resulted in a law ordering the Minister of Finance to change the name pound into a Hebrew name, Shekel. The law allowed the minister to decide on a date for the change. The law did not come into effect until February 1980, when the Israeli government decided to change the monetary system, the shekel, now known as the old shekel, was the currency of the State of Israel between 24 February 1980 and 31 December 1985. The Israeli pound and its successor, the old shekel, all experienced frequent devaluations against foreign currencies during the 1960s and 70s and this trend culminated in the old shekel experiencing hyperinflation in the early 1980s. After inflation was contained as a result of the 1985 Economic Stabilization Plan, as a result of these factors, inflation has been relatively low and the country now maintains a positive balance of payments, with a current account surplus equivalent to about 3% of its GDP in 2010. Since 1 January 2003, the new shekel has been a freely convertible currency, since 7 May 2006, new shekel derivative trading has also been available on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This makes the new one of only twenty or so world currencies for which there are widely available currency futures contracts in the foreign exchange market. It is also a currency that can be exchanged by consumers in parts of the world. On 26 May 2008, CLS Bank International announced that it would settle payment instructions in new shekels, since 20 March 2003, the new shekel has gained more than 30% in value against the US dollar. In 1985, coins in denominations of 1,5, and 10 agora and ₪½, in 1990, ₪5 coins were introduced, followed by ₪10 coins in 1995
8.
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
9.
Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem)
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The Jewish Quarter is one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem. In the early 20th century, the Jewish population of the quarter reached 19,000, the quarter is inhabited by around 2,000 residents and is home to numerous yeshivas and synagogues, most notably the Hurva Synagogue, destroyed numerous times and rededicated in 2010. In CE135, when the Roman Emperor Hadrian built the city of Aelia Capitolina on the ruins of ancient Jerusalem, new structures, such as a Roman bathhouse, were built over the Jewish ruins. The Jewish quarter was located near the Gate of the Moors and Coponius Gate. Most of the property consisted of Muslim religious endowments, and was rented out to Jews. The population of the quarter was not homogeneously Jewish, such a rule being neither desired by the Jewish inhabitants nor enforced by the Ottoman rulers, during the Ottoman era, most of the homes in the quarter were leased from Muslim property owners. This is one of the reasons for the growth of buildings west of the city in the last years of the Ottoman Empire since land outside the city wall was freehold and easier to acquire. While most residents of Jerusalem in the 19th century preferred to live near members of their own community, there were Muslims living in the Jewish Quarter, many Jews moved to the Muslim Quarter toward the end of the century due to intense overcrowding in the Jewish Quarter. In 1857, an organization of Dutch and German Jews named Kolel Hod bought a plot of land on which, between 1860 and 1890, the Batei Mahse housing complex was built. The most prominent building of the project, the two-storey Rothschild House, built in 1871 with money donated by Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild, between December 1917 and May 1948, the entire city of Jerusalem was part of British-administered Palestine, known after 1920 as Mandatory Palestine. In 1948, during the Arab-Israeli War, the population of the Jewish Quarter counted about 2,000 Jews, who were besieged, defeated, the defenders surrendered on May 28,1948. Colonel Abdullah el Tell, local commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion, with whom Mordechai Weingarten negotiated the surrender terms, the operations of calculated destruction were set in motion. I knew that the Jewish Quarter was densely populated with Jews who caused their fighters a good deal of interference, I embarked, therefore, on the shelling of the Quarter with mortars, creating harassment and destruction. Only four days after our entry into Jerusalem the Jewish Quarter had become their graveyard, death and destruction reigned over it. As the dawn of Friday, May 28,1948, was about to break, the Jordanian commander is reported to have told his superiors, For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact and this makes the Jews return here impossible. The Hurva Synagogue, originally built in 1701, was blown up by the Jordanian Arab Legion, during the nineteen years of Jordanian rule, a third of the Jewish Quarters buildings were demolished. According to a complaint Israel made to the United Nations, all, the synagogues were razed or pillaged and stripped and their interiors used as hen-houses or stables
10.
Judah HeHasid (Jerusalem)
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See Judah he-Hasid for other people who used this name. Judah he-Hasid Segal ha-Levi was a Jewish preacher who led the largest organized group of Jewish immigrants to the Land of Israel in the 17th and 18th centuries. Judah traveled from one Jewish community to another throughout Poland, urging repentance, ascetism, physical mortifications, in 1697, he and 31 families of his followers left for Moravia and made a stop at Nikolsburg. Judah spent a year traveling throughout Germany and Moravia gaining followers, many joined the group, influenced by his fervor. By the time the group gathered in Italy, they numbered about 1,500. Almost a third of the pilgrims died of hardships and illnesses during the trip, the group arrived in Jerusalem on October 14,1700. At that time, about 200 Ashkenazi and about 1,000 Sephardi Jews lived in the city, the sudden influx of between 500 and 1,000 Ashkenazim produced a crisis, the local community was unable to help such a large group. In addition, some of the newcomers were suspected to be Sabbateans, the situation grew worse when Judah He-Hasid died within days of his arrival to Jerusalem. He is buried on the Mount of Olives, emissaries were sent to the Council of the Four Lands for aid, but it didnt arrive. The newcomers went deeper into debt to build a small synagogue, in 1720, Arab creditors broke into the synagogue, set it on fire, and took over the area. Some of the Ashkenazi Jews moved to other cities, others started to dress like Sephardi Jews. The synagogue, called Hurvat Yehudah He-Hasid, was rebuilt in 1864 by the Perushim, the building was destroyed by the Arab Legion in 1948. It was then rebuilt and rededicated in 2010, the Land of Promise, The Return to Zion March 27,2003 Pre-Zionism
11.
Perushim
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They were from the section of the community known as mitnagdim in Lithuania. The name Perushim comes from the פרש parash, meaning to separate, the group sought to separate themselves from what they saw as the impurities of the society around them in Europe, and the name literally means separated. Coincidentally this was the name by which the Pharisees of antiquity were known. However the latter-day Perushim did not make any claim to be successors of the Pharisees, in the generations prior to their departure for Israel, the term Perushim referred to commentaries in the sifrei kodesh. It was later applied to the Vilna group, alluding to their practice of studying Biblical commentaries, not just the Talmud and later commentaries. Enduring great hardships and danger, they traveled to and settled in the Holy Land, most of the Perushim settled in Safed, Tiberias, Jaffa and in Jerusalem, setting up what were known as the Kollel Perushim, and forming the basis of the Ashkenazi communities there. The conflict between Chassidic and non-Chassidic Jews was ended by World War II, as the old religious Jewish presence in those countries was destroyed. Most of these people, although they influenced the State of Israel especially through the creation of crafts, newspapers and daycare for Jews, like most deeply religious poor Jews, they were very hesitant to serve in any army or militia. The majority of their descendants established themselves in middle-class neighborhoods of the America, the phenomenon of Orthodox refusal to serve in the Israeli military remains a divisive issue in modern Israel. Later, when the Haggannah developed into the IDF and following the formation of the State of Israel, Chief Rabbi Kook had public meetings with Israeli generals. Thus the first Chief Rabbi marshaled religious support for Jewish nationalism, the perushim began their journey from the city of Shklov, about 300 kilometers southeast of Vilna in Lithuania. The perushim migrated in three groups, the first group left in 1808 led by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Shklov, and the following two in 1809, led by Rabbi Saadya Ben Rabbi Noson Nota of Vilna, and Rabbi Yisroel ben Shmuel of Shklov. They traveled via Constantinople on foot and by horse and wagon, the trips lasted about fifteen months, and the travelers suffered many hardships, including starvation. The journey was all the more dangerous because of the Napoleonic Wars that were raging across Europe. Reaching the shores of Palestine, however, was not the end of their journey, when the perushim first arrived, they faced a ban on Ashkenazi Jews settling in Jerusalem. While some managed to evade the ban by entering Jerusalem disguised as Sephardi Jews, most of the perushim journeyed on to Safed, besides the Sephardim, the community included many Hasidic Jews, with whom the perushim had an ongoing feud. However, the two set aside their ideological differences and worked hand in hand to settle the land and develop their community. Safed in the first quarter of the 19th century was a town of over five thousand Jewish inhabitants
12.
Ashkenazi Jews
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The traditional diaspora language of Ashkenazi Jews is Yiddish, with Hebrew used only as a sacred language until relatively recently. Throughout their time in Europe, Ashkenazim have made important contributions to philosophy, scholarship, literature, art, music. Ashkenazim originate from the Jews who settled along the Rhine River, in Western Germany, there they became a distinct diaspora community with a unique way of life that adapted traditions from Babylon, The Land of Israel, and the Western Mediterranean to their new environment. The Ashkenazi religious rite developed in such as Mainz, Worms. The eminent French Rishon Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki would have a significant impact on the Jewish religion, in the late Middle Ages, the majority of the Ashkenazi population shifted steadily eastward, moving out of the Holy Roman Empire into the Pale of Settlement. The genocidal impact of the Holocaust devastated the Ashkenazim and their culture, immediately prior to the Holocaust, the number of Jews in the world stood at approximately 16.7 million. Statistical figures vary for the demography of Ashkenazi Jews, oscillating between 10 million and 11.2 million. Sergio DellaPergola in a calculation of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. Other estimates place Ashkenazi Jews as making up about 75% of Jews worldwide, genetic studies on Ashkenazim—researching both their paternal and maternal lineages—suggest a significant proportion of Middle Eastern ancestry. Ashkenazi Jews are popularly contrasted with Sephardi Jews, who are descendants of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, there are some differences in how the two groups pronounce certain Hebrew letters, and in points of ritual. The name Ashkenazi derives from the figure of Ashkenaz, the first son of Gomer, son of Khaphet, son of Noah. The name of Gomer has often been linked to the ethnonym Cimmerians, the intrusive n in the Biblical name is likely due to a scribal error confusing a waw ו with a nun נ. In Jeremiah 51,27, Ashkenaz figures as one of three kingdoms in the far north, the others being Minni and Ararat, perhaps corresponding to Urartu, called on by God to resist Babylon. Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia, viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes and his contemporary Saadia Gaon identified Ashkenaz with the Saquliba or Slavic territories, and such usage covered also the lands of tribes neighboring the Slavs, and Eastern and Central Europe. In modern times, Samuel Krauss identified the Biblical Ashkenaz with Khazaria, sometime in the early medieval period, the Jews of central and eastern Europe came to be called by this term. In conformity with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain was denominated Sefarad, France was called Tsarefat, Rashi uses leshon Ashkenaz to describe German speech, and Byzantium and Syrian Jewish letters referred to the Crusaders as Ashkenazim. Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France and Germany following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to both the Jews of medieval Germany and France. Outside of their origins in ancient Israel, the history of Ashkenazim is shrouded in mystery, the most well-supported theory is the one that details a Jewish migration from Israel through what is now Italy and other parts of southern Europe
13.
Arab Legion
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The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century. The Legion was based in Zarqa and 80 percent of its men were the local Chechens and it was quickly expanded to 1,000 men recruiting Arabs who had served in the military of the Ottoman Empire. On 22 October 1923, the police were merged with the Reserve Mobile Force, still under Peake, the new force was named Al Jeish al Arabi but was always known officially in English as the Arab Legion. The Arab Legion was financed by Britain and commanded by British officers, the force was formed as a police force to keep order among the tribes of Transjordan and to guard the important Jerusalem–Amman road. On 1 April 1926, the Transjordan Frontier Force was formed from cadre drawn from the Arab Legion and it consisted of only 150 men and most of them were stationed along Transjordans roads. During this time the Arab Legion was reduced to 900 men and was stripped of its machine guns, artillery. During World War II, the Arab Legion took part in the British war effort against pro-Axis forces in the Mediterranean, by then the force had grown to 1,600 men. The Legion, part of Iraqforce, contributed significantly in the Anglo-Iraqi War and in the Syria-Lebanon campaign, the top three officers representing the Legion who participated in the Victory March were Major General Abdul Qadir Pasha el Jundi, O. B. E. Colonel Bahjat Bey Tabbara, and Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Sudqui Bey, the Arab Legion actively participated in the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. The regiments were organized into two brigades, 1st Brigade contained 1st and 3rd Regiments while 3rd brigade contained 2nd and 4th Regiments. There were also two batteries with four 25-pounders each. On 9 February 1948 the Transjordan Frontier Force was disbanded with members being absorbed back into the Arab Legion, although headed by Glubb, now a Lieutenant General, command in the field was by Brigadier Norman Lash. The Legion was initially withdrawn from Palestine to Transjordanian territory, under instruction from the United Nations, with the commencement of hostilities the Legion re-entered Palestine with 1st Brigade heading to Nablus and 2nd Brigade heading to Ramallah. This led to the spectacle of British officers leaving their units to return to Transjordan, only to sneak back across the border. Without exception all of the British officers returned to their units, one British MP called for Glubb Pasha to be imprisoned for serving in a foreign army without the Kings permission. Battle for Jerusalem and Siege of Jerusalem from 17 May to 18 July 1948, Attacking and capturing Gezer on 10 June 1948, Tarqumiya on 24 October 1948. By the end of the war in 1949, the Arab Legion consisted of over 10,000 men manning a 100-mile front, over twenty soldiers and policemen were killed. The Legion generally stayed out of the 1956 Suez Crisis, on 1 March 1956, the Legion was renamed as the Arab Army
14.
Solomon's Temple
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Because of the religious sensitivities involved, and the politically volatile situation in Jerusalem, only limited archaeological surveys of the Temple Mount have been conducted. No archaeological excavations have been allowed on the Temple Mount during modern times, therefore, there are very few pieces of archaeological evidence for the existence of Solomons Temple. The only source of information on the First Temple is the Hebrew Bible, according to the biblical sources, the temple was constructed under Solomon, during the united monarchy of Israel and Judah. The Bible describes a Hiram I of Tyre who furnished architects, workmen and he also co-operated with Solomon in mounting an expedition on the Red Sea. 1 Kings 6,1 puts the date of the beginning of building the temple in the year of Solomons reign over Israel. The conventional dates of Solomons reign are circa 970 to 931 BCE and this puts the date of its construction in the mid-10th century BCE. Some scholars have speculated that a Jebusite sanctuary may have occupied the site. 1 Kings 9,10 says that it took Solomon 20 years altogether to build the Temple, the Temple itself finished being built after 7 years. During the united monarchy the Temple was dedicated to Yahweh, the God of Israel, according to the Hebrew Bible, the Temple was plundered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire king Nebuchadnezzar II when the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem during the brief reign of Jehoiachin c. A decade later, Nebuchadnezzar again besieged Jerusalem and after 30 months finally breached the city walls in 587 BCE, subsequently burning the Temple, according to Jewish tradition, the Temple was destroyed on Tisha BAv, the 9th day of Av. The Temple of Solomon is considered to be according to Phoenician design. The detailed descriptions provided in the Tanakh are the sources for reconstructions of its appearance, technical details are lacking, since the scribes who wrote the books were not architects or engineers. Nevertheless, the descriptions have inspired modern replicas of the temple, the usual explanation for the discrepancy between its height and the 30-cubit height of the temple is that its floor was elevated, like the cella of other ancient temples. It was floored and wainscotted with cedar of Lebanon, and its walls, there was a two-leaved door between it and the Holy Place overlaid with gold, also a veil of tekhelet, purple, and crimson and fine linen. It had no windows and was considered the dwelling-place of the name of God, kodesh haKodashim was prepared to receive and house the Ark, and when the Temple was dedicated, the Ark, containing the original tablets of the Ten Commandments, was placed therein. When the priests emerged from the place after placing the Ark there. The Hekhal, or Holy Place, is called the greater house and the temple, the word also means palace, was of the same width and height as the Holy of Holies. Its walls were lined with cedar, on which were carved figures of cherubim, palm-trees, and open flowers, chains of gold further marked it off from the Holy of Holies
15.
Second Temple
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The Second Temple was the Jewish Holy Temple which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, between 516 BCE and 70 CE. Jewish eschatology includes a belief that the Second Temple will be replaced by a future Third Temple, the accession of Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire in 559 BCE made the re-establishment of the city of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple possible. According to the Bible, when the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem following a decree from Cyrus the Great, the events take place in the second half of the 5th century BCE. Listed together with the Book of Ezra as Ezra-Nehemiah, it represents the chapter in the historical narrative of the Hebrew Bible. The original core of the book, the memoir, may have been combined with the core of the Book of Ezra around 400 BCE. Further editing probably continued into the Hellenistic era, the book tells how Nehemiah, at the court of the king in Susa, is informed that Jerusalem is without walls and resolves to restore them. The king appoints him as governor of the province Yehud Medinata, there he rebuilds the walls, despite the opposition of Israels enemies, and reforms the community in conformity with the law of Moses. After 12 years in Jerusalem, he returns to Susa but subsequently revisits Jerusalem and he finds that the Israelites have been backsliding and taking non-Jewish wives, and he stays in Jerusalem to enforce the Law. A wide interest was felt in this movement, although it was regarded with mixed feelings by the spectators. The Samaritans made proposals for co-operation in the work, Zerubbabel and the elders, however, declined all such cooperation, feeling that the Jews must build the Temple without help. Immediately evil reports were spread regarding the Jews, according to Ezra 4,5, the Samaritans sought to frustrate their purpose and sent messengers to Ecbatana and Susa, with the result that the work was suspended. Seven years later, Cyrus the Great, who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, on his death, the false Smerdis, an impostor, occupied the throne for some seven or eight months, and then Darius became king. It was ready for consecration in the spring of 516 BCE, the Book of Haggai includes a prediction that the glory of the second temple would be greater than that of the first. Some of the artifacts from the Temple of Solomon are not mentioned in the sources after its destruction in 597 BCE. In the Second Temple, the Kodesh Hakodashim was separated by curtains rather than a wall as in the First Temple. Still, as in the Tabernacle, the Second Temple included, The Menorah for the Hekhal The Table of Showbread The golden altar of incense, with golden censers. According to the Mishnah, the Foundation Stone stood where the Ark used to be, the Second Temple also included many of the original vessels of gold that had been taken by the Babylonians but restored by Cyrus the Great. According to the Babylonian Talmud, however, the Temple lacked the Shekinah, the dwelling or settling divine presence of God, and the Ruach HaKodesh, judea became at that moment part of the Seleucid empire of Syria
16.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
17.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
18.
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
19.
Judah ha-Nasi
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Judah the Prince or Judah I, also known as Rabbi or Rabbenu HaQadosh, was a second-century rabbi and chief redactor and editor of the Mishnah. He was a key leader of the Jewish community during the Roman occupation of Judea, according to the Talmud he was of the Davidic line, the royal line of David, hence the title nasi prince. The title nasi was also used for presidents of the Sanhedrin, Judah HaNasi died on 15 Kislev around 217 CE. Judah the Prince was born in 135 CE to President of Sanhedrin Simeon ben Gamliel II, according to the Midrash, he came into the world on the same day that Rabbi Akiva died as a martyr. The Talmud suggests that this was a result of Divine Providence and his place of birth is unknown. He is the only known as Rabbeinu HaQadosh, our holy teacher. Judah spent his youth in the city of Usha and his father presumably gave him the same education that he himself had received, including the Greek language. This knowledge of Greek enabled him to become the Jews intermediary with the Roman authorities and he favored Greek as the language of the country over Jewish Palestinian Aramaic. It is said that in Judahs house, only the Hebrew language was spoken and he also did the same for the cities of Kefar Tzemach, Caesarea and Beit Gubrin. According to the Talmud, Rabbi Judah HaNasi was very wealthy, the Talmud records the tradition that Judah was buried in the necropolis of Beit Shearim, in the Lower Galilee. It was here that he established a seat of learning. According to Rabbinical Jewish tradition, God gave both the Written Law and the Oral law to Moses on Mount Sinai, the Oral law is the oral tradition as relayed by God to Moses and from him, transmitted and taught to the sages of each subsequent generation. For centuries, the Torah appeared only as a written text transmitted in parallel with the oral tradition, fearing that the oral traditions might be forgotten, Judah undertook the mission of consolidating the various opinions into one body of law which became known as the Mishnah. This completed a project which had been clarified and organized by his father. The Mishnah consists of 63 tractates codifying Jewish law, which are the basis of the Talmud. According to Abraham ben David, the Mishnah was compiled by Rabbi Judah the Prince in anno mundi 3949, or what is also the year 500 of the Seleucid era, various stories are told about Judah to illustrate different aspects of his character. One of them begins by telling of a calf breaking free from being led to slaughter. According to the story, the calf tries to hide under Judahs robes, bellowing with terror, for this, Heaven inflicted upon him kidney stones, painful flatulence and other gastric problems, saying, Since he showed no pity, let us bring suffering upon him
20.
Ramban Synagogue
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The Ramban Synagogue, is the second oldest active synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was founded by Nahmanides in 1267, to service the local Jewish community, the foundation of the building comprises vaults resting on Romanesque and Byzantine capitals. Along with the fact there are no Gothic or Islamic architectural features. The synagogue is located three meters below street level, to comply with Muslim restrictions for Dhimmi houses of prayer not to be higher than mosques, after the Disputation of Barcelona, Nahmanides was exiled from Aragon, and in 1267 he made aliyah to the Land of Israel. A number of Jews moved to Jerusalem after hearing of Nahmanides arrival, the Torah scrolls that were evacuated to Shechem before the Mongol invasion were returned. In three weeks, for Rosh Hashanah, the synagogue was ready for use, in 1586, the synagogue was closed under the order of the Turkish governor of Jerusalem. Today the Yochanan ben Zakai Synagogue stands there, the Nahmanides Synagogue shared a wall with the Sidna Umar Mosque and was described as similar in design. Ottoman authorities issued a Firman to lock the synagogue due to local complaints of noisy ceremonies. In 1835, the leaders of the community managed to obtain a permission from the Ottoman authorities for the renovation of the synagogues, which were unified into a single unit. Over the years, the building has been the home to the Sephardi community, was converted into a mosque after being confiscated by a Mufti, and was used as a flour mill, today it is used by the Ashkenazi community. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the building was destroyed by the Arab Legion, as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews regained their right to the property, and 700 years after the Ramban revived the ancient building, the synagogue was reopened. Oldest synagogues in the world Cave of the Ramban Synagogues of the World, Jerusalem Moshe ben Nahman RaMBaN Synagogue How Nachmanides Rebuilt Jerusalem
21.
Sephardi Jews
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They established communities throughout Spain and Portugal, where they traditionally resided, evolving what would become their distinctive characteristics and diasporic identity. Spoken by Sephardim in the Eastern Mediterranean, Haketia, an Arabic influenced Judaeo-Spanish variety also derived from Old Spanish, with numerous Hebrew and Aramaic terms. Taken with them in the 15th century after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Early Modern Spanish and Early Modern Portuguese, including in a mixture of the two. Traditionally spoken or used liturgically by the ex-converso Western Sephardim, taken with them during their later migration out of Iberia in the 16th to 18th centuries as conversos, after which they reverted to Judaism. In most cases these varieties have incorporated loanwords from the languages of the Americas introduced following the Spanish conquest. This article deals with Sephardim within the narrower ethnic definition, the name Sephardi means Spanish or Hispanic, derived from Sepharad, a Biblical location. The location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified by later Jews as Hispania, that is, Sepharad still means Spain in modern Hebrew. In its most basic form, this broad definition of a Sephardi refers to any Jew, of any ethnic background. The term Sephardi in the sense, thus describes the nusach used by Sephardi Jews in their Siddur. A nusach is defined by a liturgical traditions choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers, Sephardim traditionally pray using Minhag Sefarad. Additionally, Ethiopian Jews, whose branch of practiced Judaism is known as Haymanot, have come under the umbrella of Israels already broad Sephardic Chief Rabbinate. The divisions among Sephardim and their descendants today is largely a result of the consequences of the Royal edicts of expulsion. In the case of the Alhambra Decree of 1492, the purpose was to eliminate their influence on Spains large converso population. Indeed, a number of those Jews who had not yet joined the converso community finally chose to convert. While the stipulations were similar in the Portuguese decree, King Manuel then largely prevented Portugals Jews from leaving, by blocking Portugals ports of exit. This failure to leave Portugal was then reasoned by the king to signify a default acceptance of Catholicism by the Jews, actual physical forced conversions, however, were also experienced throughout Portugal. Sephardi Jews, therefore, encompass Jews descended from those Jews who left the Iberian Peninsula as Jews by the expiration of the respective decreed deadlines. This group is divided between those who fled south to North Africa, as opposed to those who fled eastwards to the Balkans, West Asia
22.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
23.
Messianic Age
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In theology the Messianic Age is a future time of universal peace and brotherhood on the earth, without crime, war and poverty. Many Abrahamic religions believe that there will be such an age, in the context of Messianic Age, the earliest meaning of the word messianic is derived from notion of Yemot HaMashiach meaning the days of the messiah, that is, the Jewish Messiah. Messiah derives from Hebrew, meaning the anointed one, originally the anointed one referred to Aaron and his descendants, the Kohanim. Following the establishment of the kingdom of Saul, it could refer to a king who was anointed with holy anointing oil as part of what might be understood to be his coronation ceremony. Eschatology is an area of scholarship that deals with prophecies about the end of the current age of human civilization. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, the infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the vipers nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, in his Mishneh Torah, Maimonides describes the Messianic Era, And at that time there will be no hunger or war, no jealousy or rivalry. For the good will be plentiful, and all available as dust. The entire occupation of the world will be only to know God, the people Israel will be of great wisdom, they will perceive the esoteric truths and comprehend their Creators wisdom as is the capacity of man. As it is written, For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea. Advent of the Messianic Era According to the Talmud, the Midrash, and the ancient Kabbalistic work, the Zohar, in Orthodox Jewish belief, the Hebrew calendar dates to the time of creation, making this correspond to the year 2240 on the Gregorian calendar. The Midrash comments, Six eons for going in and coming out, for war, the seventh eon is entirely Shabbat and rest for life everlasting. There is a tradition that maintains that each of the seven days of the week. The tradition teaches that the day of the week, the Sabbath day of rest, corresponds to the seventh millennium. The seventh millennium begins with the year 6000, and is the latest time the Messiah can come. Christian eschatology includes several views of the Messianic Age, According to realized eschatology, the Messianic Era, a time of universal peace and brotherhood on the earth, without crime, war and poverty, is already here. With the Crucifixion of Jesus the Messianic Era had begun, the Book of Revelation is commonly interpreted as referring to the unveiling or revelation of Jesus as the Messiah in the apocalypse or end of the world
24.
Meshulach
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A meshulach or SHaDaR is a rabbinical emissary sent to collect charity funds. In the original meaning it was for the rescue of the Yishuv ha-Yashan of Eretz Yisrael, in recent times, the term has come to mean any charity collector for a Jewish organization. Often an individual meshulach may operate as an independent contractor for several different organizations, the percentage retained by the meshulach is sometimes as high as 49%. Originally only trustworthy meshulachim were employed, a list of the best-known meshulachim, with their dates and spheres of activity, is provided here,1441. Joseph ben Moses Miṭrani the Elder, Egypt, Joseph ben Moses Miṭrani the Elder, Istanbul. Joseph ben Moses Miṭrani the Elder, Istanbul, nathan ben Reuben David Spiro, Italy and Germany. Benjamin ha-Levi, the Levant and Italy, Joseph ben Eliezer, Italy and Germany. Joseph Shalit Riqueti, Italy and Germany, Ḥezekiah ben David da Silva, Western Europe. Judah Sharaf, the Levant and Italy, abraham ben Levi Conque, Italy, Germany, and Poland. Jacob of Vilna, Germany and Poland, hayyim Jacob ben Jacob David, the Levant and Europe. Moses Hagiz, the Levant and Europe for a period of 50 years, hayyim Joseph David Azulai, the Levant and Europe (including Egypt, Amsterdam, England, and Livorno, for 56 years. His Ma‘agal Yashar contains part of his itinerary, hayyim Mordecai Tzebi, Italy, etc.1750. Rahmim Nissim Mizrahi, the Levant and Italy, hayyim Nissim Jeroham of Vilna, Germany. Yom-Ṭob al-Ghazi, the Levant and Italy, Ḥayyim ben Elias Moda‘i, Holland and elsewhere in Europe. Raphael Chayyim Isaac Carregal, West Indies and the British Colonies of North America, Jacob Raphael Saraval, Holland and England. Abraham ha-Kohen of Lask, Germany and Poland, israel of Shklov, Lithuania and Belarus. Solomon David Hazzan, the Levant and Italy, Jacob Saphir, Yemen, British India, Egypt, and Australia. Eliezer Zalman Grajewski, the United States, joshua Loeb Suessenwein, the United States
25.
Old Yishuv
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The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the southern Syrian provinces in the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. The Old Yishuv developed after a period of decline in Jewish communities of the Southern Levant during the early Middle Ages. The oldest group consisted of the Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jewish communities in Galilee, a second group was composed of Ashkenazi and Hassidic Jews who had emigrated from Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries. A third wave was constituted by Yishuv members who arrived in the late 19th century. Apart from the Old Yishuv centres in the four cities of Judaism, namely Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed, smaller communities also existed in Jaffa, Haifa, Pekiin, Acre, Nablus. Petah Tikva, although established in 1878 by the Old Yishuv, rishon LeZion, the first settlement founded by the Hovevei Zion in 1882, could be considered the true beginning of the New Yishuv. Jewish communities of the southern Levant under Byzantine rule fell into a decline in the early 7th century. And with the Jewish revolt against Heraclius and Muslim conquest of Syria, despite temporary revival, the Arab Muslim civil wars of the 8th and 9th centuries drove many non-Muslims out of the country, with no evidence of mass conversions, except for Samaritans. The Crusader period marked the most serious decline, lasting through the 12th century, maimonides traveled from Spain to Morocco and Egypt, and stayed in the Holy Land, probably sometime between 1165 and 1167, before settling in Egypt. He had then become a physician of Saladin, escorting him throughout his war campaigns against the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Small Jewish communities were also existent at the time in Gaza, the vast majority of the settlers were wiped out by the Crusaders, who arrived in 1219, and the few survivors were allowed to live only in Acre. Their descendants blended with the original Jewish residents, called Mustarabim or Maghrebim, the Mamluk period saw an increase in the Jewish population, especially in the Galilee, but the black death epidemics had cut the countrys demographics by at least one-third. In 1260, Rabbi Yechiel of Paris arrived in Eretz Israel, at the part of Mamluk Empire, along with his son. There he established the Talmudic academy Midrash haGadol dParis and he is believed to have died there between 1265 and 1268, and is buried near Haifa, at Mount Carmel. Nahmanides arrived in 1267 and settled in Acre as well, don Joseph Nasi succeeded in resettling Tiberias and Safed in 1561 with Sephardic Jews, many of them former Anusim. By the late 16th century, Safed had become a center of Kabbalah, inhabited by important rabbis, among them were Rabbi Yakov bi Rav, Rabbi Moshe Cordevero, Rabbi Yosef Karo, and Isaac Luria. At this time there was a community in Jerusalem headed by Rabbi Levi ibn Haviv also known as the Mahralbach. Rabbi Yeshaye Horowitz, the Shelah Hakadosh, arrived in 1620, Galilee, becoming the most important Jewish center, however, didnt last
26.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
27.
Land of Israel
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The Land of Israel is the traditional Jewish name for an area of indefinite geographical extension in the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the land is referred as from Dan to Beersheba. According to the Book of Genesis, the land was first promised by God to the descendants of Abram, abrams name was later changed to Abraham, with the promise refined to pass through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abrahams grandson. During the mandatory period the term Eretz Yisrael or the Land of Israel was part of the official Hebrew name of Mandatory Palestine, official Hebrew documents used the Hebrew transliteration of the word “Palestine” פלשתינה followed always by the two initial letters of Eretz Yisrael, א״י Aleph-Yod. The Land of Israel concept has been evoked by the founders of the State of Israel. It often surfaces in political debates on the status of the West Bank, Ezekiel, though generally preferring the phrase soil of Israel, employs eretz israel twice, respectively at Ezekiel 40,2 and Ezekiel 47,18. According to Anita Shapira, the term Eretz Yisrael was a term, vague as far as the exact boundaries of the territories are concerned. The Hebrew Bible provides three specific sets of borders for the Promised Land, each with a different purpose. And to their descendants after them, whilst Numbers 34, 1–15 describes the Land of Canaan which is allocated to nine, the expression Land of Israel is first used in a later book,1 Samuel 13,19. It is defined in detail in the exilic Book of Ezekiel as a land where both the tribes and the strangers in midst, can claim inheritance. The name Israel first appears in the Hebrew Bible as the name given by God to the patriarch Jacob, deriving from the name Israel, other designations that came to be associated with the Jewish people have included the Children of Israel or Israelite. The term Land of Israel occurs in one episode in the New Testament, the section in which it appears was written as a parallel to the earlier Book of Exodus. The passage describes the area as the land of the ten named ancient peoples living there. Genesis gives the border with Egypt as Nahar Mitzrayim – nahar in Hebrew denotes a river, never a wadi. Only the Red Sea and the Euphrates are mentioned to define the southern and eastern borders of the land promised to the Israelites. The Red Sea corresponding to Hebrew Yam Suf was understood in ancient times to be the Erythraean Sea, thus the entire Arabian peninsula lies within the borders described
28.
Nachmanides
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Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, commonly known as Nachmanides /nækˈmænᵻ. He was raised, studied, and lived for most of his life in Girona and he is also considered to be an important figure in the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Jerusalem following its decimation at the hands of the Crusaders in 1099. Nachmanides is a Greek-influenced formation meaning son of Nahman and he is also commonly known by the Hebrew acronym רמב״ן. His Catalan name was Bonastruc ça Porta, literally Mazel Tov near the Gate, Ramban was born in Girona in 1194, where he grew up and studied, and died in the Land of Israel about 1270. He was a descendant of Isaac ben Reuben of Barcelona and cousin of Jonah Gerondi, according to the responsa of Solomon b. During his teens he began to get a reputation as a learned Jewish scholar, at age 16 he began his writings on Jewish law. In his Milhamot Hashem he defended Alfasis decisions against the criticisms of Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona and these writings reveal a conservative tendency that distinguished his later works — an unbounded respect for the earlier authorities. In the view of Nachmanides, the wisdom of the rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud and their words were to be neither doubted nor criticized. We bow, he says, before them, and even when the reason for their words is not quite evident to us, Nachmanides adherence to the words of the earlier authorities may be due to piety, or the influence of the northern French Jewish school of thought. This work gave rise to a tendency to allegorize Biblical narratives, against this tendency Nachmanides strove, and went to the other extreme, not even allowing the utterances of the immediate disciples of the Geonim to be questioned. If, he says, you were of the opinion that it was duty to denounce the Guide as heretical. Is it right in important matters to act capriciously, to applaud the one to-day. This compromise, which might have ended the struggle, was rejected by both parties in spite of Nachmanides authority, Nachmanides allegedly wrote a book on marriage, holiness, and sexual relations for his son as a wedding gift, the Iggeret ha-Kodesh. In it Nachmanides criticizes Maimonides for stigmatizing mans sexual nature as a disgrace to man. In the view of the author, the body with all its functions being the work of God, is holy, in Nachmanidess Torat ha-Adam, which deals with mourning rites, burial customs, etc. Nachmanides sharply criticizes writers who strove to render man indifferent to both pleasure and pain and this, he declares, is against the Law, which commands man to rejoice on the day of joy and weep on the day of mourning. The last chapter, entitled Shaar ha-Gemul, discusses reward and punishment, resurrection and it derides the presumption of the philosophers who pretend to a knowledge of the essence of God and the angels, while even the composition of their own bodies is a mystery to them. For Nachmanides, divine revelation is the best guide in all these questions and he holds that as God is eminently just, there must be reward and punishment
29.
Alhambra Decree
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The primary purpose was to eliminate their influence on Spains large converso population and ensure they did not revert to Judaism. Over half of Spains Jews had converted as a result of the persecution and pogroms which occurred in 1391. A further number of those chose to avoid expulsion as a result of the edict. In 2014, the government of Spain passed a law allowing dual citizenship to Jewish descendants who apply, beginning in the 8th century, Muslims had conquered and settled most of the Iberian Peninsula. Jews, who had lived in these regions since Roman times, were considered People of the Book and given special status, the tolerance of the Muslim Moorish rulers of al-Andalus attracted Jewish immigration, and Jewish enclaves in Muslim Iberian cities flourished as places of learning and commerce. By the 14th century, most of the Iberian Peninsula had been conquered by the Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, León, Galicia, Navarre, overt hostility against Jews became more pronounced, finding expression in brutal episodes of violence and oppression. Thousands of Jews sought to escape attacks by converting to Christianity, they were commonly called conversos, New Christians. At first these conversions seemed a solution to the cultural conflict. But eventually their success made these new Catholics unpopular with some of the clergy of the Church and these suspicions on the part of Christians were only heightened by the fact that some of the coerced conversions were undoubtedly insincere. These secret practitioners are referred to as crypto-Jews or marranos. The existence of crypto-Jews was a provocation for secular and ecclesiastical leaders who were hostile toward Spains Jewry. The uncertainty over the sincerity of Jewish converts added fuel to the fire of antisemitism in 15th century Spain, from the 13th to the 16th centuries European countries expelled the Jews from their territory on at least 15 occasions. Spain was preceded by England, France and some German states, among many others, in 1478, Ferdinand and Isabella made formal application to Rome for a tribunal of the Inquisition in Castile to investigate these and other suspicions. In 1487, King Ferdinand promoted the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition Tribunals in Castille, in Aragon, the independent Islamic Emirate of Granada had been a tributary state to Castile since 1238. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella completed the Catholic Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula from Islamic al-Andalus by victory in the Battle of Granada, the king and queen issued the Alhambra Decree less than three months after the surrender of Granada. This was primarily a decision of Isabella, not her husband Fernando and that her confessor had just changed from the tolerant Hernando de Talavera to the very intolerant Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros suggests that Cisneros may well have had a role in Isabels decision. In it, Jews were accused of trying to subvert their holy Catholic faith and these measures were not new in Europe. Some Jews were only four months and ordered to convert to Christianity or leave the country
30.
1517 Hebron attacks
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1517 Hebron attacks occurred in the final phases of the 1513-17 Ottoman–Mamluk War, when Turkish Ottomans had ousted the Mamluks and taken Palestine. The massacre targeted the Jewish population of the city and is referred to as a pogrom. An account of the event, recorded by Japheth ben Manasseh in 1518, mentions how the onslaught was initiated by Turkish troops led by Murad Bey, Jews were attacked, beaten and raped, and many were killed as their homes and businesses were looted and pillaged. It has been suggested that the financial position of the Hebronite Jews at the time was what attracted the Turkish soldiers to engage in the mass plunder. Others suggest the pogrom could have in fact taken place in the midst of a localised conflict and those who survived the calamity fled to Beirut and Jews only returned to Hebron 16 years later in 1533. 1834 Hebron massacre List of massacres in Ottoman Syria
31.
1517 Safed attacks
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The Safed attacks were an incident that took place in Safed soon after the Turkish Ottomans had ousted the Mamluks and taken Levant during the Ottoman–Mamluk War in 1517. At the time the town had roughly 300 Jewish households, the severe blow suffered took place as Mamluks clashed bloodily with the new Ottoman authorities. The view that the impact on the Jews of Safed was severe is contested. Historians link the event to the conflict taking place in the country between the incoming Ottoman regime and its opponents and note that the Jews suffered maltreatment during the war. Accounts of the attack against the Jews in Safed were recorded by historian Rabbi Elijah Capsali of Candia, and Rabbi Joseph Garson, according to these reports, many Jews were killed and left injured. They were compelled to flee the city and their property was plundered, scholars debate whether or not the event led to a decline in the Jewish population of Safed, but all agree that a few years later, Jews had re-established a significant presence in the city. The attack may have been initiated by retreating Mamluk soldiers who accused the Jews of treacherously aiding the Turkish invaders, alternatively, the attack occurred during an attempt by local Mamluk sheikhs to reassert their control after being removed from power by the incoming Turks. Many Jews were reportedly killed while others were wounded or had their property pillaged, according to Garson, the Jews were evicted from their homes, robbed and plundered, and they fled naked to the villages without any provisions. Many subsequently fled the city, but the community was rehabilitated with the financial help of Egyptian Jewry. The many Jews who had fled and sought refuge in neighbouring villages returned, the Ottoman overthrow of the Mamluks brought about important changes. Under the earlier dynasty, Egyptian Jews were guided by their nagid,1517 Hebron attacks 1834 looting of Safed 1838 Druze attack on Safed Ben-Ami, Shlomo, Mishal, Nissim. Demographic Changes in the Safed Jewish Community of the 16th Century, occident and Orient, A Tribute to the Memory of Alexander Scheiber. In Zion and Jerusalem, the itinerary of Rabbi Moses Basola, to Come to the Land, Immigration and Settlement in 16th-Century Eretz-Israel. Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos, Isaac Luria, eretz Yisrael Under Ottoman Rule, 1517-1917. Tel Aviv, Am Oved and Dvir, Ottoman history and society, Jewish sources. Heavenly Powers, Unraveling the Secret of the Kabbalah, further data on the pogrom of 1517 against the Jews of Safed, Cathedra 8, p. 190-94. On the Jews of Safed in the Days of the Ottoman Conquest, Cathedra 11, p. 181-82
32.
Tiberias
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Tiberias is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Established around 20 CE, it was named in honour of the 2nd Emperor of the Roman Empire Tiberius, in 2015 it had a population of 42,610. In the 2nd–10th centuries, Tiberias was the largest Jewish city in the Galilee and the political and religious hub of the Jews of Israel. Its immediate neighbour to the south, Hammat Tiberias, which is now part of modern Tiberias, has known for its hot springs, believed to cure skin and other ailments. Herod Antipas made it the capital of his realm in the Galilee, the city was built in immediate proximity to a spa which had developed around 17 natural mineral hot springs, Hammat Tiberias. Tiberias was at first a pagan city, but later became populated mainly by Jews, with its growing spiritual. The Jewish oral tradition holds that Tiberias was built on the site of the ancient Israelite village of Rakkath or Rakkat, in Talmudic times, the Jews still referred to it by this name. Conversely, in The Antiquities of the Jews, the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus calls the village with hot springs Emmaus, todays Hammat Tiberias and this name also appears in The Wars of the Jews. Antipas settled many non-Jews there from rural Galilee and other parts of his domains in order to populate his new capital, and built a palace on the acropolis. The prestige of Tiberias was so great that the Sea of Galilee soon came to be named the Sea of Tiberias, however, the Jewish population continued to call it Yam Ha-Kineret, its traditional name. The city was governed by a city council of 600 with a committee of 10 until 44 CE when a Roman procurator was set over the city after the death of Herod Agrippa I. Tiberias is mentioned in John 6,23 as the location from which boats had sailed to the side of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd seeking Jesus after the feeding of the 5000 used these boats to travel back to Capernaum on the north-western part of the sea. Under the Roman Empire, the city was known by its Greek name Τιβεριάς, in 61 CE Herod Agrippa II annexed the city to his kingdom whose capital was Caesarea Philippi. It became a city after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, with Judea subdued. It was to be its final meeting place before its disbanding in the early Byzantine period, when Johanan bar Nappaha settled in Tiberias, the city became the focus of Jewish religious scholarship in the land. The Jerusalem Talmud would follow being compiled by Rabbi Jochanan between 230–270 CE, Tiberias 13 synagogues served the spiritual needs of a growing Jewish population. In the 6th century Tiberias was still the seat of Jewish religious learning, in 628, the Byzantine army returned to Tiberias upon the surrender of Jewish rebels and the end of the Persian occupation after they were defeated in the battle of Nineveh
33.
1838 Druze attack on Safed
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The 1838 Druze attack on Safed began on July 5,1838, during the Druze revolt against the rule of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt. Tensions had mounted as the Druze captured an Egyptian garrison outside of Safed, some Jews ended up leaving the town, moving south to Jerusalem and Acre. Among them was Israel Beck, whose printing press had been destroyed a second time by the ruffians, by the 19th-century, the Galilean city of Safed comprised a major Jewish center. It had become a centre during the 16th-century, reaching a size of about 15,000 at its peak. Despite the decline through the 17th and 18th centuries, by the 1830s there were still around 3, 500-4,000 Jews living there, comprising at least half the population. After several months, the Egyptians managed to crush the rebellion and regain control of the county, not long after, Safed was again the scene of devastation when in 1837 a strong earthquake resulted in thousands of deaths and the destruction of many buildings. The northern, Jewish section of the town was almost entirely destroyed, by 1838, the tense relationship between the fellahin and the Egyptian overlords was again mounting and a full-scale Druze revolt erupted in January. In summer of 1838, the Druze captured a heavily outnumbered Egyptian garrison outside Safed, the Jewish population relied on the protection of an Arab governor against the Druze. Dr. Elizer Loewe wrote in his diary, We huddled together in Rebbe Avraham Dovs house, the women were hysterical and the children crying. The Rebbe asked me to write a note in Arabic to the mayor, I did so, but his answer was mere lip service. According to Loewe, the mayor and his militia fled the city, the Druze rebels were joined by Muslim mob and they looted the Jewish quarters, as the Druze rebels thought the Jews possessed hidden treasures and local Muslims encouraged them to attack. The plunder lasted for 3 days, during the course of the attack, some Jews were assisted by friendly Arabs. One Arab by the name of Muhammed Mustafa, had helped them, lending them money and providing them with food. This time, Ibrahim Pashas response was swift, and after a few days things returned to normal. 1660 destruction of Safed 1929 Safed riots
34.
Expansion of Jerusalem in the 19th century
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The Departure from the walls in Jerusalem was the process of building new residences outside of the Old City walls, and shifting the city center to the new neighborhoods. The process started in the century and by the early 20th century had entirely transformed the city. In the mid 19th century, with an area of one square kilometer, the Old City had become overcrowded and unsanitary. In the 1850s, institutions including the Russian Compound, the Bishop Gobat School, and the Schneller Orphanage marked the beginning of permanent settlement outside the Jerusalem Old City walls. In 1855, Johann Ludwig Schneller, a Lutheran missionary who came to Jerusalem at the age of 34 and he built a house there but was forced to move his family back inside the walls after several attacks by marauders. When the Turks erected outposts along Jaffa Road, between Jerusalem and the city of Jaffa, and armed guards on horseback patrolled the road. The public institutions were followed by the development of two philanthropically supported Jewish neighborhoods, Mishkenot Sha’ananim and Mahane Israel, Mishkenot Sha’ananim was the first Jewish neighborhood built outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, on a hill directly across from Mount Zion. It was built by Sir Moses Montefiore in 1860 as an almshouse, paid for by the estate of a wealthy Jew from New Orleans, Judah Touro. As an incentive, people were paid to live there, the name of the neighborhood was taken from the Book of Isaiah 32,18, My people will abide in peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places. Mahane Israel, built in 1869, was the second Jewish neighborhood built outside the walls of the Old City, Mahane Israel was a communal neighborhood and was built by and for Maghreb Jews. Nahalat Shiva was the residential neighborhood built outside the city walls. It was founded in 1869 as an effort by seven Jerusalem families who pooled their funds to purchase the land. Lots were cast and Yosef Rivlin won the right to build the first house in the neighborhood, the neighborhoods that make up the Nachlaot district were established outside the walls in the late 1870s. The first was Mishkenot Yisrael, built in 1875, the name comes from a biblical verse, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob/Thy dwellings, O Israel. Mazkeret Moshe was founded by Sir Moses Montefiore in 1882 as an Ashkenazi neighborhood, ohel Moshe is a Sephardi neighborhood established alongside it. The neighborhood was intended for Hasidic Jews, but due to lack of financing. The remainder of the land was apportioned to several groups, Syrian, Iraqi. In the 1890s another neighborhood, Eshel Avraham, was erected next to Kirya Neemana for Georgian and Caucasian Jews, nahalat Shimon was founded in 1891 by Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish Kollels, to house poor Yemenite and Sephardi Jews
35.
Ishtori Haparchi
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Ishtori Haparchi is the pen name of the 14th century Jewish physician, topographer, and traveler, Isaac HaKohen Ben Moses. Ishtori Haparchi was born in France in 1280, HaParhi was descended from a line of sages and rabbis of fame. His Father was Rabbi Moshe HaParhi, a distinguished Talmudical scholar and his grandfather was, Rabbi Nathan of Trinquetaille, author of Shaar HiTefisa His great grandfather was Meir ben Isaac of Carcassonne, author of the Sefer ha-Ezer. His family originally came from Florenzia, Spain, the surname Haparchi means the Florentine in Hebrew. He is commonly known by the title Kaftor Vaferach taken from the name of his work, when the Jews were expelled from France in 1306, he travelled to Spain and Egypt, and then settled in Eretz Yisrael. He worked as a physician in Bet Shean, where he died in 1355, ishtori Haparchi was the author of the first Hebrew book on the geography of Eretz Yisrael Sefer Kaftor Vaferach (Hebrew, ספר כפתור ופרח, written in 1322 and published in Venice in 1549. Kaftor Vaferach is a Hebrew idiom derived from the description of the menorah in the Temple, in the context of the book it refers to the lay of the land. Haparchi lists the names of towns and villages in Eretz Yisrael, modern scholarship has determined that most of the 180 ancient sites he identified were correct, among them Usha, Modiin and Betar
36.
Joseph Saragossi
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Joseph Saragossi, was a Spanish-born rabbi and kabbalist of the 15th and 16th centuries. He is credited with developing Safed into an important Jewish and kabbalistic centre and he was banished with the rest of the Jewish community in 1492 and travelled through Sicily to Beirut and Sidon. He settled in Safed, where he became a rabbi, there were about 300 Jews there who had originally come from the Berbers, Sephardim and Moriscos, but they had no natural leader. Saragossi became a rabbi and a leader of the Jewish people despite his quiet manner and his charismatic personality was used to foster the growth of peace and harmony within the community. He endeavored to show reconciliation and mutual respect towards Safeds Muslim, saragossis influence in Safed has been compared to the Italian Obadyah di Bertinoro who made a similar contribution to the community in Jerusalem. When Saragossi indicated his intention to leave Safed, the people of Safed persuaded him to remain, the respect of the Arab community was demonstrated when their Muslim governor promised to provide 33 of the 50 ducats that was offered to Saragossi as an annual payment. Combining Talmudic with kabbalistic knowledge, Saragossi created a movement interested in Kabbalistic Jewish study in Safed and his kabbalistic teachings attracted the attention of David ibn Abu Zimra. In accordance with his wish, Saragossi was buried adjacent to the tomb of Judah bar Ilai and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Singer, Isidore, et al. eds. article name needed. New York, Funk & Wagnalls Company
37.
Jacob Berab
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Jacob Berab, also spelled Berav or Bei-Rav, was an influential rabbi and talmudist best known for his attempt to reintroduce rabbinic ordination. Berab was born at Moqueda near Toledo, Castilian Spain in 1474 and he later became a pupil of Isaac Aboab. After the expulsion of Jews from Spain, he fled to Fez, there, the Jewish community consisting of 5,000 families, chose him for their rabbi, though he was but a youth of eighteen. Evidence of the great respect there paid him is afforded by the lines of Abraham Gavison. Jacob Berab hath come back—once more among us he sojourneth and it is not known how long Berab remained in Algeria, but before 1522 he was in Jerusalem. There, however, the social and economic conditions were so oppressive that he did not stay long and it was there that Berab conceived the bold idea which made him famous, that of establishing a central spiritual Jewish power. Berab had a plan for the reintroduction of the old Semichah and it likely that his further plans included the reestablishment of Sanhedrin, or Synedrium. Berabs undertaking is considered by some to be a part of a bigger Messianic vision, as Ginzburg writes in his article in the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia. the imaginative and sentimental persons thought that the promised Messianic time was approaching. And calls messianic expectations of the time to be a delusion and he also writes that. the hopes of a Messiah, cherished especially in Palestine, were fundamentally wild and extravagant. According to others, the purpose of Berabs plan was a resolution of certain halachic difficulties, Jacob Berab writes about this problem in his Responsa. Maimonides taught that if the sages in Eretz Israel would agree to one of themselves, they could do so. In 1538 twenty-five rabbis met in assembly at Safed and ordained Berab, giving him the right to any number of others. In a discourse in the synagogue at Safed, Berab defended the legality of his ordination from a Talmudic standpoint, and showed the nature of the rights conferred upon him. On hearing of this event most of the other Jewish scholars expressed their agreement, Berab then ordained a few other rabbis, including the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem ibn Habib, rabbi Joseph Caro, rabbi Moses of Trani, and rabbi Yosef Sagis. Joseph Caro later ordained rabbi Moshe Alshich, and Alshich ordained rabbi Hayim Vital around 1590, to obtain the good-will of the Jews of the Holy City, the first use that Berab made of his new dignity was to ordain the chief rabbi at Jerusalem, Levi ibn Habib. Moreover, the terms in which Berab officially announced Ibn Habibs ordination were kindly ones, Berab, therefore, expected no opposition from that quarter, but he was mistaken. Ibn Habibs personal animus was not appeased, but rather stimulated and he considered it an insult to his dignity and to the dignity of Jerusalem that so important a change should be effected without consultation of the Jerusalem scholars. Although Levi ibn Habibs tone was moderate, every one could read between the lines that he opposed the man Berab as well as his work
38.
Joseph Nasi
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He was a great benefactor of the Jewish people. Nasi also brought war with the Republic of Venice, at the end of which Venice lost the island of Cyprus to the Ottomans. After the death of Selim, he lost influence in the Ottoman Court, joao Micas, Yosef Nasi was born in Portugal as a Marrano, a son of the doctor Agostinho Micas, a well known physician and professor at the University of Lisbon. A friend of Maximilian, nephew of the Habsburg King Charles I of Spain and he studied at the University of Louvain, but had to flee the Inquisition in 1547. He then moved to France and later to Venice, before leaving for the Ottoman realm in 1554, where he married Ana Mendes. Due to his connections in Europe, he was able to exercise great influence on Ottoman foreign policy. Among his achievements were negotiating peace with Poland and influencing the new election of the Polish king. He was awarded the monopoly of the trade with Poland, and of the wine trade with Moldavia. Nasis relative Abraham Benveniste was arrested in 1570, on charges of having set fire to the Venetian Arsenal on Nasis instigation, maintaining contacts with William the Silent, Nasi encouraged the Netherlands to revolt against Spain, a major adversary of the Ottoman Empire. For this and other achievements, he was appointed by Selim to become the Duke of Naxos, Joseph Nasi is best known to history for his attempt to resettle the towns of Tiberias and Safed in 1561. He was the first person to attempt to settle Jews in the cities of what was then Southern Syria by practical means, Nasi secured a grant giving ruling authority from the Sultan, and, with the assistance of Joseph ben Adruth, rebuilt the walls and the town. He also attempted to turn it into a center by planting mulberry trees. Arrangements were made for Jews to move from the Papal States, but, when the Ottomans and the Republic of Venice went to war, Nasi is a character in Altai by Wu Ming. Mehmet Bulut, Ottoman-Dutch Economic Relations in the Early Modern Period 1571-1699, Hilversum, Uitgeverij Verloren,2001 John Freely, The Cyclades, London, I. B
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