1.
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
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POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word Polin in the name means, in English. The cornerstone was laid in 2007, and the museum was first opened on April 19,2013, the museums Core Exhibition opened in October 2014. The museum features a multimedia narrative exhibition about the living Jewish community that flourished in Poland for a thousand years up to the Holocaust, the building, a postmodern structure in glass, copper, and concrete, was designed by Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma. The idea for creating a new museum in Warsaw dedicated to the history of Polish Jews was initiated in 1995 by the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland. In 2005, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland established a unique partnership with the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The Museums first director was Jerzy Halbersztadt, in September 2006, a specially designed tent called Ohel was erected for exhibitions and events on the museums future location. An international architectural competition for designs for the building was launched in 2005, supported by a grant from the Ministry of Culture, on June 30,2005 the jury announced the winner, a team of two Finnish architects, Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma. On June 30,2009 construction of the building was officially inaugurated, the project was to be finished in 33 months at a cost of PLN150 million zloty allocated by the Ministry and the City. And a total cost of PLN320 million zloty, the museum opened the building and began its educational and cultural programs on April 19,2013 on the 70th Anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Grand Opening, with the completed Core Exhibition, was on October 28,2014, the Core Exhibition documents and celebrates the thousand-year history of the Jewish community in Poland that was decimated by the Holocaust. In 2016 the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award from the European Museum Forum, the Museum faces the memorial commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. The Polish firm Kuryłowicz & Associates was responsible for construction, the buildings minimalist exterior is clad with glass fins and copper mesh. Silk screened on the glass is the word Polin, in Latin, the central feature of the building is its cavernous entrance hall. The main hall forms a high, undulating wall, the empty space is a symbol of cracks in the history of Polish Jews. Similar in shape to gorge, which could be a reference to the crossing of the Red Sea known from the Exodus, the museum is nearly 13,000 square meters of usable space. At the lowest level, in the basement of the building will be placed a main exhibition about history of Jews from the Middle Ages to modern times, the architects kept the museum in the colors of sand, giving it a more approachable feeling. In 2008, the design of the museum was awarded the Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award, in 2014, the designer Rainer Mahlamäki was awarded the Finlandia Prize for Architecture for his design of the museum
2.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa
3.
Torah
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The Torah is the central reference of Judaism. It has a range of meanings and it can most specifically mean the first five books of the twenty-four books of the Tanakh, and it usually includes the rabbinic commentaries. In rabbinic literature the word Torah denotes both the five books and the Oral Torah, the Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, traditionally, the words of the Torah are written on a scroll by a scribe in Hebrew. A Torah portion is read publicly at least once every three days in the presence of a congregation, reading the Torah publicly is one of the bases for Jewish communal life. The word Torah in Hebrew is derived from the root ירה, the meaning of the word is therefore teaching, doctrine, or instruction, the commonly accepted law gives a wrong impression. Other translational contexts in the English language include custom, theory, guidance, the earliest name for the first part of the Bible seems to have been The Torah of Moses. This title, however, is neither in the Torah itself. It appears in Joshua and Kings, but it cannot be said to refer there to the entire corpus, in contrast, there is every likelihood that its use in the post-Exilic works was intended to be comprehensive. Other early titles were The Book of Moses and The Book of the Torah, Christian scholars usually refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible as the Pentateuch, a term first used in the Hellenistic Judaism of Alexandria, meaning five books, or as the Law. The Torah starts from the beginning of Gods creating the world, through the beginnings of the people of Israel, their descent into Egypt, and it ends with the death of Moses, just before the people of Israel cross to the promised land of Canaan. Interspersed in the narrative are the teachings given explicitly or implicitly embedded in the narrative. This is followed by the story of the three patriarchs, Joseph and the four matriarchs, God gives to the patriarchs a promise of the land of Canaan, but at the end of Genesis the sons of Jacob end up leaving Canaan for Egypt due to a regional famine. They had heard there was a grain storage and distribution facility in Egypt. Exodus begins the story of Gods revelation to his people of Israel through Moses, Moses receives the Torah from God, and teaches His laws and Covenant to the people of Israel. It also talks about the first violation of the covenant when the Golden Calf was constructed, Exodus includes the instructions on building the Tabernacle and concludes with its actual construction. Leviticus begins with instructions to the Israelites on how to use the Tabernacle, leviticus 26 provides a detailed list of rewards for following Gods commandments and a detailed list of punishments for not following them. Numbers tells how Israel consolidated itself as a community at Sinai, set out from Sinai to move towards Canaan, even Moses sins and is told he would not live to enter the land
4.
Mishnah
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The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions known as the Oral Torah. It is also the first major work of Rabbinic literature, most of the Mishnah is written in Mishnaic Hebrew, while some parts are Aramaic. The Mishnah consists of six orders, each containing 7–12 tractates,63 in total, the word Mishnah can also indicate a single paragraph or a verse of the work itself, i. e. the smallest unit of structure in the Mishnah. For this reason the work is sometimes called by the plural. The term Mishnah originally referred to a method of teaching by presenting topics in an order, as contrasted with Midrash. The Mishnah consists of six orders, each containing 7–12 tractates,63 in total, each masechet is divided into chapters and then paragraphs. In this last context, the word means a single paragraph of the work, i. e. the smallest unit of structure, leading to the use of the plural, Mishnayot. Because of the division into six orders, the Mishnah is sometimes called Shas, in each order, tractates are arranged from biggest to smallest. A popular mnemonic consists of the acronym ZMaN NaKaT, the Babylonian Talmud states that there were either six hundred or seven hundred orders of the Mishnah. Hillel the Elder organized them into six orders to make it easier to remember, the historical accuracy of this tradition is disputed. There is also a tradition that Ezra the scribe dictated from memory not only the 24 books of the Tanakh but 60 esoteric books. It is not known whether this is a reference to the Mishnah, interestingly, Reuvein Margolies posited that there were originally seven orders of Mishnah, citing a Gaonic tradition on the existence of a seventh order containing the laws of Stam and Berachot. A number of important laws are not elaborated upon in the Mishnah and these include the laws of tzitzit, tefillin, mezuzot, the holiday of Hanukkah, and the laws of conversion to Judaism. These were later discussed in the minor tractates, nissim ben Jacobs Hakdamah Lemafteach Hatalmud argued that it was unnecessary for Judah the Prince to discuss them as many of these laws were so well known. Rabbinic commentaries on the Mishnah from the four centuries, done in the Land of Israel. In themselves they are known as Gemara, the books which set out the Mishnah in its original structure, together with the associated Gemara, are known as Talmuds. Two Talmuds were compiled, the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud, unlike the Hebrew Mishnah, the Gemara is written primarily in Aramaic. The Mishnah does not claim to be the development of new laws, the term Mishnah is related to the verb shanah, to teach or repeat, and to the adjectives sheni and mishneh, meaning second
5.
Talmud
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The Talmud is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. It is also referred to as Shas, a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, the six orders. Talmud translates literally as instruction in Hebrew, and the term may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah, the entire Talmud consists of 63 tractates, and in standard print is over 6,200 pages long. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law, Rabbis expounded and debated the Torah and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works, though some may have made private notes, for example of court decisions. It is during this period that rabbinic discourse began to be recorded in writing, the earliest recorded oral Torah may have been of the midrashic form, in which halakhic discussion is structured as exegetical commentary on the Pentateuch. But an alternative form, organized by subject matter instead of by biblical verse, became dominant about the year 200 CE, the Oral Torah was far from monolithic, rather, it varied among various schools. The most famous two were the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, in general, all valid opinions, even the non-normative ones, were recorded in the Talmud. The oldest full manuscript of the Talmud, known as the Munich Talmud, each tractate is divided into chapters,517 in total, that are both numbered according to the Hebrew alphabet and given names, usually using the first one or two words in the first mishnah. A perek may continue over several pages, each perek will contain several mishnayot with their accompanying exchanges that form the building-blocks of the Gemara, the name for a passage of gemara is a sugya. A sugya, including baraita or tosefta, will comprise a detailed proof-based elaboration of a Mishnaic statement. A sugya may, and often does, range widely off the subject of the mishnah, in a given sugya, scriptural, Tannaic and Amoraic statements are cited to support the various opinions. In so doing, the Gemara will highlight semantic disagreements between Tannaim and Amoraim, and compare the Mishnaic views with passages from the Baraita. Rarely are debates formally closed, in instances, the final word determines the practical law. There is a literature on the procedural principles to be used in settling the practical law when disagreements exist, see under #Logic. The Mishnah is a compilation of legal opinions and debates, statements in the Mishnah are typically terse, recording brief opinions of the rabbis debating a subject, or recording only an unattributed ruling, apparently representing a consensus view. The rabbis recorded in the Mishnah are known as the Tannaim, the Mishnahs topical organization thus became the framework of the Talmud as a whole. But not every tractate in the Mishnah has a corresponding Gemara, also, the order of the tractates in the Talmud differs in some cases from that in the Mishnah. In addition to the Mishnah, other tannaitic teachings were current at about the time or shortly thereafter
6.
Mishneh Torah
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The Mishneh Torah, subtitled Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka, is a code of Jewish religious law authored by Maimonides, one of historys foremost rabbis. The Mishneh Torah was compiled between 1170 and 1180, while Maimonides was living in Egypt, and is regarded as Maimonides magnum opus, accordingly, later sources simply refer to the work as Maimon, Maimonides or RaMBaM, although Maimonides composed other works. Mishneh Torah consists of fourteen books, subdivided into sections, chapters and it is the only Medieval-era work that details all of Jewish observance, including those laws that are only applicable when the Holy Temple is in existence, and remains an important work in Judaism. Maimonides intended to provide a statement of the Oral Law, so that a person who mastered first the Written Torah. Contemporary reaction was mixed, with strong and immediate opposition focusing on the absence of sources, Maimonides responded to these criticisms, and the Mishneh Torah endures as an influential work in Jewish religious thought. Likewise, One must follow Maimonides even when the latter opposed his teachers, since he knew their views. He drew upon the Torah and the rest of Tanakh, both Talmuds, Tosefta, and the halachic Midrashim, principally Sifra and Sifre. Some believe that he preferred rulings in certain Midrash collections to rulings in the Talmud, later sources include the responsa of the Geonim. According to Maimonides, the Geonim were considered unintelligible in our days, there were even times when Maimonides disagreed with what was being taught in the name of the Geonim. Maimonides himself states a few times in his work that he possessed what he considered to be more accurate texts of the Talmud than what most people possessed at his time. The latter has confirmed to a certain extent by versions of the Talmud preserved by the Yemenite Jews as to the reason for what previously were thought to be rulings without any source. The Mishneh Torah is written in Hebrew in the style of the Mishnah, as he states in the preface, Maimonides was reluctant to write in Talmudic Aramaic, since it was not widely known. His previous works had been written in Arabic, the Mishneh Torah never cites sources or arguments, and confines itself to stating the final decision on the law to be followed in each situation. There is no discussion of Talmudic interpretation or methodology, and the sequence of chapters follows the subject matter of the laws rather than the intellectual principle involved. Since intermarriage with non-Jews is forbidden, the laws of conversion to Judaism are also included, major sources of contention were the absence of sources and the belief that the work appeared to be intended to supersede study of the Talmud. Some criticisms appear to have been less rational in nature, indeed, Maimonides quotes the Talmud in stating that one should study the Talmud for a third of ones study time. The most sincere but influential opponent, whose comments are printed parallel to all editions of the Mishneh Torah, was Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posquières. Yet despite all this, Maimonides remained certain that in the future the Mishneh Torah would find great influence and acceptance
7.
Shulchan Aruch
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The Shulchan Aruch, also known by various Jewish communities but not all as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed by Yosef Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later, together with its commentaries, it is the most widely accepted compilation of Jewish law ever written. These glosses are referred to as the mappah to the Shulchan Aruchs Set Table. The Shulchan Aruch follow the structure as Arbaah Turim by Rabbi Jacob ben Asher. These books were written from the standpoint of Sephardi Minhag, other works entitled Shulchan Aruch or Kitzur Shulcan Aruch cited below are written from the standpoint of Ashkenazi Minhag, there are four sections, each subdivided into many chapters and paragraphs. There is disagreement on the authorship of the references to Isserles remarks, since the 17th century, the Shulchan Aruch has been printed with Isserles annotations in small Rashi print interspersed with Karos text. As commentaries on the work proliferated, more sophisticated printing styles became required, the Shulchan Aruch is largely based on an earlier work by Karo, titled Beth Yosef. The latter is a vast and comprehensive commentary on Jacob ben Ashers Arbaah Turim, citing and analyzing the Talmudic, Geonic and this work analyzes the theories and conclusions of those authorities cited by the Tur, and also examines the opinions of authorities not mentioned by the latter. Karo began the Beth Yosef in 1522 at Adrianople, finished it in 1542 at Safed in the Land of Israel, thirty-two authorities, beginning with the Talmud and ending with the works of Rabbi Israel Isserlein, are summarized and critically discussed in Beth Yosef. No other rabbinical work compares with it in wealth of material, Karo evidences not only an astonishing range of reading, covering almost the entire rabbinic literature up to his time, but also remarkable powers of critical investigation. He evidences no inclination to accept the opinions of ancient authorities. In the introduction to his compilation, Karo clearly states the necessity of. The expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian peninsula and the invention of printing had endangered the stability of religious observances on their legal and ritual sides, Jews then living in the different kingdoms of Spain had their standard authorities to which they appealed. Karo undertook his Beth Yosef to remedy this problem, quoting, Karo initially intended to rely on his own judgment relating to differences of opinion between the various authorities, especially where he could support his own view based on the Talmud. But he abandoned this idea because, as he wrote, Who has the courage to rear his head aloft among mountains, the heights of God. And also because he may have thought, though he does not mention his conclusion, Karo very often decides disputed cases without necessarily considering the age and importance of the authority in question, expressing simply his own views. He follows Maimonides example, as seen in Mishneh Torah, rather than that of Jacob ben Asher, several reasons induced Karo to connect his work with the Tur, instead of Maimonides code. Secondly, it was not Karos intention to write a similar in form to Maimonides work, he intended to give not merely the results of his investigations
8.
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
9.
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
10.
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
11.
Parchment
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Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of kids, lambs and it may be called animal membrane by libraries and museums that wish to avoid distinguishing between parchment and the more restricted term vellum. Today the term parchment is often used in non-technical contexts to refer to any animal skin, particularly goat, sheep or cow, that has been scraped or dried under tension. Vellum in theory refers exclusively to calfskin, and is used to denote a quality of material. The term parchment originally referred only to the skin of sheep and, occasionally, the word parchment evolved from the name of the city of Pergamon which was a thriving center of parchment production during the Hellenistic period. This account, originated in the writings of Pliny the Elder, is dubious because parchment had been in use in Anatolia, in the 2nd century BC a great library was set up in Pergamon that rivaled the famous Library of Alexandria. Writing on prepared animal skins had a history, however. H. Ibscher, and preserved in the Cairo Museum, a roll of the Twelfth Dynasty now in Berlin, the text now in the British Museum. Though the Assyrians and the Babylonians impressed their cuneiform on clay tablets, early Islamic texts are also found on parchment. In the later Middle Ages, especially the 15th century, parchment was largely replaced by paper for most uses except luxury manuscripts, new techniques in paper milling allowed it to be much cheaper than parchment, it was still made of textile rags and of very high quality. With the advent of printing in the fifteenth century, the demands of printers far exceeded the supply of animal skins for parchment. Although most copies of the Gutenberg Bible are on paper, some were printed on parchment,12 of the 48 surviving copies, in 1490, Johannes Trithemius preferred the older methods, because handwriting placed on parchment will be able to endure a thousand years. But how long will printing last, which is dependent on paper and it lasts for two hundred years that is a long time. In fact high quality paper from this period has survived 500 years or more very well, the heyday of parchment use was during the medieval period, but there has been a growing revival of its use among artists since the late 20th century. Although parchment never stopped being used it had ceased to be a choice for artists supports by the end of 15th century Renaissance. This was partly due to its expense and partly due to its working properties. When the water in paint media touches parchments surface, the collagen melts slightly, forming a bed for the paint
12.
Shema Yisrael
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Shema Yisrael are the first two words of a section of the Torah, and is the title of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the service in Judaism. It is traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, and for parents to teach their children to say it before they go to sleep at night. The term Shema is used by extension to refer to the part of the daily prayers that commences with Shema Yisrael and comprises Deuteronomy 6, 4–9,11, 13-21. These sections of the Torah are read in the weekly Torah portions Vaetchanan, Eikev, originally, the Shema consisted of only one verse, Deuteronomy 6,4. The recitation of the Shema in the liturgy, however, consists of three portions, Deuteronomy 6, 4–9,11, 13-21, and Numbers 15, 37–41, the three portions are already mentioned in the Mishnah. The three portions relate to issues of Jewish belief. In the Mishnah the reciting of the shema was linked with re-affirming a personal relationship with Gods rule, literally, reciting the shema was stated as receiving the kingdom of heaven. Additionally, the Talmud points out that subtle references to the Ten Commandments can be found in the three portions, as the Ten Commandments were removed from daily prayer in the Mishnaic period, the Shema is seen as an opportunity to commemorate the Ten Commandments. There are two larger-print letters in the first sentence which, when combined, spell עד, the idea thus conveyed is that through the recitation or proclamation of the Shema one is a living witness testifying to the truth of its message. Modern Kabbalistic schools, namely that of the Ari, teach that one recites the last letter of the word ecḥad, meaning one. The first, pivotal, words of the Shema are, in the original Hebrew, שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃, which can be transliterated, Shma Yisrael, YHWH eloheinu, YHWH eḥad. Rabbinic Judaism teaches that the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, is the ineffable and actual name of God, for this reason, the Shema is recited aloud as, Shma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad - Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is One. Eloheinu — the plural 1st person possessive of אֱלֹהִים Elohim, meaning “our God”, echad — the unified and cardinal number one אֶחָד This first verse of the Shema relates to the kingship of God. The first verse, Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD, has ever been regarded as the confession of belief in the One God. Due to the ambiguities of the Hebrew language, there are ways of translating the Shema, Hear. Adonai is our God – Adonai alone, many commentaries have been written about the subtle differences between the translations. There is an emphasis on the oneness of God and on the worship of God by Israel
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Sofer
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A Sofer, Sopher, Sofer SeTaM, or Sofer STM is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot, and other religious writings. By simple definition, a sofer is a copyist, but the role in Judaism is much more. Besides sifrei Torah, tefillin, and mezuzot, scribes are also necessary to write the Five Megillot, Neviim, the major halakha pertaining to sofrut, the practice of scribal arts, is in the Talmud in the tractate Maseket Sofrim. In the Torahs 613 commandments, the second to last is that every Jew should write a Sefer Torah in their lifetime, a sofer should be religiously observant, of good character, and knowledgeable about the laws concerning sofrut. It is a misconception that one has to be a rabbi in order to become a sofer. People who want to become ritual scribes usually learn from another expert scribe by undergoing Shimush, some people who want to become ritual scribes learn at the Vaad Mishmereth STaM with the option of receiving a certificate. Certification of this sort is not a requirement, nor does it necessarily guarantee the quality of a particular sofers work. This process does however ensure that a certified sofer has received the education and is a recognized expert in the field of sofrut. The main texts from which Sofrim learn the art include the Keset Ha-Sofer, Chasdey David, Mishnah Brurah Volume I —The laws of tefillin, Mishneh Torah. Hilchot Tzitzit, Mishnat Hasofer, Mishnat Sofrim, Likkut Sifrey, the rulings on mezuzot and tefillin are virtually undisputed among those who hold to the Talmud. While Arbaah Turim does not include women in its list of those ineligible to write Sifrei Torah, however today, virtually all Orthodox authorities contest the idea that a woman is permitted to write a sefer Torah. Yet women are permitted to inscribe Ketubot, STaM not intended for ritual use, in 2003, Canadian Aviel Barclay became the worlds first known traditionally trained female sofer. In 2007 Jen Taylor Friedman, a British woman, became the first female sofer to scribe a sefer Torah, in 2010 the first sefer Torah scribed by a group of women was completed, this was known as the Womens Torah Project. This makes her the first American female sofer to scribe a sefer Torah, from spring 2011 until August 2012 she scribed another sefer Torah, this time for the Reform congregation Beth Israel in San Diego. Seltzer was taught mostly by Jen Taylor Friedman, on September 22,2013, Congregation Beth Elohim of New York dedicated a new Torah, which members of Beth Elohim said was the first Torah in New York City to be scribed by a woman. The Torah was scribed by Linda Coppleson, as of 2014, there are an estimated 50 female sofers in the world. Besides Torah scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot, scribes are also necessary for the writing of the Five Megillot and Neviim, and for gittin. In some communities, especially Chaim Kanievskys community in Bnei Brak, soferim also write the books of the Bible
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Ramla
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Ramla is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority, Ramla was founded circa 705–715 CE by the Umayyad governor and future caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik. Ramla lies along the route of the Via Maris, connecting old Cairo with Damascus, at its intersection with the road connecting the port of Jaffa with Jerusalem. It was conquered many times in the course of its history, by the Abbasids, the Ikhshidids, the Fatimids, the Seljuqs, the Crusaders, the Mameluks, the Turks, the British, and the Israelis. After an outbreak of the Black Death in 1347, which reduced the population. Under Arab and Ottoman rule the city became an important trade center, napoleons French Army occupied it in 1799 on its way to Acre. The town had an Arab majority before most of its Arab inhabitants were expelled or fled during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the town was subsequently repopulated by Jewish immigrants. In 2001, 80% of the population were Jewish and 20% Arab, in recent years, attempts have been made to develop and beautify the city, which has been plagued by neglect, financial problems and a negative public image. New shopping malls and public parks have been built, and a museum opened in 2001. A2013 Israeli police report documented that the Central District ranks fourth among Israels seven districts in terms of drug-related arrests, today, five prisons are located in Ramla, including the maximum-security Ayalon Prison. Its name was derived from the Arabic word raml, meaning sand, the early residents came from nearby Ludd. Ramla flourished as the capital of Jund Filastin, which was one of the five districts of the Syrian province of the Ummayad, Ramla was the principal city and district capital almost until the arrival of the Crusaders in the 11th century. In the 8th century, the Ummayads built the White Mosque, the remains of this mosque, flanked by a minaret added at a later date, can still be seen today. In the courtyard are underground water cisterns from this period, Ramla was sometimes referred to as Filastin, in keeping with the common practice of referring to districts by the name of their main city. The 10th-century geographer al-Muqaddasi describes Ramla at the peak of its prosperity, It is a fine city and it combines manifold advantages, situated as it is in the midst of beautiful villages and lordly towns, near to holy places and pleasant hamlets. Commerce here is prosperous, and the markets excellent. The bread is of the best, the lands are well favoured above all others, and the fruits are the most luscious. This capital stands among fields, walled towns and serviceable hospices. Ramlas economic importance, shared with the city of Lydda, was based on its strategic location
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Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
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Ten Commandments
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The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Different religious groups follow different traditions for interpreting and numbering them, the Ten Commandments are listed twice in the Hebrew Bible, first at Exodus 20, 1–17, and then at Deuteronomy 5, 6–21. Both versions state that God inscribed them on two tablets, which he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Modern scholarship has found likely influences in Hittite and Mesopotamian laws and treaties, but is divided over exactly when the Ten Commandments were written and who wrote them. In biblical Hebrew, the Ten Commandments are called עשרת הדברים and in Rabbinical Hebrew עשרת הדברות, the Tyndale and Coverdale English translations used ten verses. The Geneva Bible used tenne commandements, which was followed by the Bishops Bible, Most major English versions use commandments. The stone tablets, as opposed to the commandments inscribed on them, are called לוחות הברית, Luchot HaBrit, the biblical narrative of the revelation at Sinai begins in Exodus 19 after the arrival of the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. The people were afraid to hear more and moved afar off, and Moses responded with Fear not. And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there, and I will give thee tablets of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. 13 And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua, the mount was covered by the cloud for six days, and on the seventh day Moses went into the midst of the cloud and was in the mount forty days and forty nights. The passages in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 contain more than ten imperative statements, different religious traditions divide the seventeen verses of Exodus 20, 1–17 and their parallels at Deuteronomy 5, 4–21 into ten commandments or sayings in different ways, shown in the table below. Some suggest that the ten is a choice to aid memorization rather than a matter of theology. Traditions, LXX, Septuagint, generally followed by Orthodox Christians, P, Philo, same as the Septuagint, but with the prohibitions on killing and adultery reversed. S, Samaritan Pentateuch, with an additional commandment about Mount Gerizim as 10th, T, Jewish Talmud, makes the prologue the first saying or matter and combines the prohibition on worshiping deities other than Yahweh with the prohibition on idolatry. C, Catechism of the Catholic Church, largely follows Augustine, R, Reformed Christians follow John Calvins Institutes of the Christian Religion, which follows the Septuagint, this system is also used in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. All scripture quotes above are from the King James Version, click on verses at top of columns for other versions. The Ten Commandments are written with room for varying interpretation, reflecting their role as a summary of fundamental principles and they are not as explicit or detailed as rules or many other biblical laws and commandments, because they provide guiding principles that apply universally, across changing circumstances. They do not specify punishments for their violation and their precise import must be worked out in each separate situation
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Samaritanism
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The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant originating from the Israelites of the Ancient Near East. Samaritans used to include descendants who ascribed to the Benjamin tribe, in the Talmud, a central post-exilic religious text of Rabbinic Judaism, the Samaritans are called Cutheans, referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq. In the Biblical account, however, Kuthah was one of cities from which people were brought to Samaria. Genetically, modern Samaritan populations are found to have greater affinity genetically to Jews than to neighbouring Palestinian Arabs. This suggests that the Samaritans remained an isolated population. The Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, a closely related to Judaism. The Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of Israel from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan, once a large community, the Samaritan population appears to have shrunk significantly in the wake of the bloody suppression of the Samaritan Revolts against the Byzantine Empire. Conversion to Christianity under the Byzantines also reduced their numbers, conversions to Islam took place as well, and by the mid Middle Ages Benjamin of Tudela estimated only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in Palestine and Syria. As of January 1,2015, the population was 777, most Samaritans in Holon and Qiryat Luza today speak Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew and later Aramaic were languages in use by the Jewish, Samaritans have a standalone religious status in Israel, and there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice-versa due to marriages. One example is Israeli TV personality Sofi Tsedaka, who converted to Rabbinic Judaism at the age of 18. Samaritans with Israeli citizenship are obligated to undertake service in the Israel Defense Forces. There is conflict over the etymology of the name for the Samaritans in Hebrew and this has accompanied controversy over whether the Samaritans are named after the geographic area of Samaria, or whether the area received its name from the group. This distinction is controversial in part because different interpretations can be used to justify or deny claims of ancestry over this region, Biblical Hebrew Šomerim ) Guardians comes from the Hebrew Semitic root שמר, which means to watch, guard. Historically, Samaria was the key geographical concentration of the Samaritan community, thus, it may suggest the region of Samaria is named after the Samaritans, rather than the Samaritans being named after the region. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, which would appear to mean inhabitants of Samaria. This is a politically sensitive distinction, according to Samaritan tradition, Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan and the tribes of Israel settled the land. The two mountains were used to symbolize the significance of the commandments and serve as a warning to whoever disobeyed them
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Karaite Judaism
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Karaite Judaism or Karaism, is a Jewish religious movement characterized by the recognition of the Tanakh alone as its supreme authority in Halakha and theology. It is distinct from mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, which considers the Oral Torah, as codified in the Talmud and subsequent works, Karaites maintain that all of the divine commandments handed down to Moses by God were recorded in the written Torah without additional Oral Law or explanation. As a result, Karaite Jews do not accept as binding the written collections of the tradition in the Midrash or Talmud. By contrast, Rabbinic Judaism relies on the rulings of the Sanhedrin as they are codified in the Midrash, Talmud. Karaites may consider arguments made in the Talmud and other works without exalting them above other viewpoints, According to Rabbi Abraham ibn Daud, in his Sefer HaQabbalah, the Karaite movement crystallized in Baghdad in the Gaonic period under the Abbasid Caliphate in what is present-day Iraq. This is the universally accepted among Rabbinic Jews. It was said to have been stamped by the palm of Amr ibn al-As, the first Islamic governor of Egypt, and was reportedly dated 20 AH. Karaites have always maintained that, while there are similarities to the Sadducees, due to the rejection of Rabbinical authority. The ancestors of the Karaites were a group called Benei Ṣedeq during the Second Temple period, Karaites at one time made up a significant proportion of the Jewish population. Estimates of the Karaite population are difficult to make because they believe on the basis of Genesis 32 that counting Jews is forbidden, some 30–50,000 are thought to reside in the 21st century in Israel, with smaller communities in Turkey, Europe and the United States. Another estimate holds that, of the 50,000 world-wide, more than 40,000 descend from those who made aliyah from Egypt, arguments among Jewish sects regarding the validity of the Oral Law can be dated back to the 1st and 2nd centuries BCE. Accordingly, some trace the origin of Karaism to those who rejected the Talmudic tradition as an innovation. Shētaḥ, with the friends of both, at this period arose the doctrine of the Karaites in consequence of an incident between the Sages and King Jannai who was a priest. His mother was under suspicion of being a profane woman, one of the Sages alluded to this, saying to him, Be satisfied, O king Jannai, with the royal crown, but leave the priestly crown to the seed of Aaron. His friends prejudiced him against the Sages, advising him to browbeat, expel and he replied, If I destroy the Sages what will become of our Law. There is the law, they replied, whoever wishes to study it may come and do so. He followed their advice and expelled the Sages and among them Simon b, rabbinism was laid low for some time. The other party tried to establish a law built on their own conception, shētaḥ returned with his disciples from Alexandria, and restored tradition to its former condition
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Metaphor
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A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by mentioning another thing. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas, antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile are all types of metaphor. The Philosophy of Rhetoric by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts, the tenor and the vehicle, the tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed, other writers employ the general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the target and source, respectively. Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes, a simile is a specific type of metaphor that uses the words like or as in comparing two objects, whereas what is commonly referred to as a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A. What is usually referred to as a metaphor asserts the two objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, a simile merely asserts a similarity, for this reason a common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile. The metaphor category also contains these types, Allegory, An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject. Antithesis, A rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences Catachresis, A mixed metaphor used by design and accident. Hyperbole, Excessive exaggeration to illustrate a point Metonymy, A figure of speech using the name of one thing in reference to a different thing of which the first is associated, example, in lands belonging to the crown the word crown is metonymy for ruler or monarch. Parable, An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching such as in Aesops fables, pun, Similar to a metaphor, a pun alludes to another term. However, the difference is that a pun is a frivolous allusion between two different things whereas a metaphor is a purposeful allusion between two different things. Metaphor, like other types of analogy, can usefully be distinguished from metonymy as one of two modes of thought. Thus, a metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on the links within them. A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of an image has become absent. Examples, to grasp a concept and to gather what youve understood use physical action as a metaphor for understanding, the audience does not need to visualize the action, dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some people distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché, others use dead metaphor to denote both. A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one identification to a second identification inconsistent with the first, e. g. Checkmate
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Tables of the Law
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Exodus 31,18 refers to the tablets as the Tablets of Testimony. According to the Bible, there were two sets, the first, inscribed by God, were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshipping a golden calf, and the second were later cut by Moses and rewritten by God. According to traditional teachings of Judaism in the Talmud, they were made of sapphire stone as a symbolic reminder of the sky, the heavens. Many Torah scholars, however, have opined that the Biblical sapir was, in fact, according to the bible, both the first shattered set and the second unbroken set were stored in the Ark of the Covenant. In recent centuries the tablets have been described and depicted as round-topped rectangles. The rounded tablets appear in the Middle Ages, following in size, for Michelangelo and Andrea Mantegna they still have sharp corners, and are about the size found in Rabbinic tradition. Later artists such as Rembrandt tended to combine the shape with the larger size. Also according to tradition, the words were not engraved on the surface, in Jewish religious tradition, the arrangement of the commandments on the two tablets is interpreted in different ways. Rabbi Hanina ben Gamaliel said that each contained five commandments. Because the commandments establish a covenant, it is likely that they were duplicated on both tablets and this can be compared to diplomatic treaties of Ancient Egypt, in which a copy was made for each party. He put down the tablets, seized his brother by his head, when the anger of Moses was appeased, he took up the tablets, in the writing thereon was guidance and Mercy for such as fear their Lord. Tablet Tabot, a replica of the Tablets of Stone used in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Worlds largest book, a stone book the pages of which are inscribed stone tablets
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Samaritan Hebrew
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Samaritan Hebrew is a reading tradition as used liturgically by the Samaritans for reading the Ancient Hebrew language of the Samaritan Pentateuch, in contrast to Biblical Hebrew. The phonology of Samaritan Hebrew is highly similar to that of Samaritan Arabic, today, the spoken vernacular among Samaritans is evenly split between Modern Israeli Hebrew and Palestinian Arabic, depending on whether they reside in Holon or in Shechem. The Samaritan language first became known in detail to the Western world with the publication of a manuscript of the Samaritan Pentateuch in 1631 by Jean Morin. In 1616 the traveler Pietro della Valle had purchased a copy of the text in Damascus, between 1815 and 1835, Wilhelm Gesenius wrote his treatises on the original of the Samaritan version, proving that it postdated the Masoretic text. Between 1957 and 1977 Zeev Ben-Haim published in five volumes his monumental Hebrew work on the Hebrew, Samaritan Hebrew is written in the Samaritan alphabet, a direct descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which in turn is a variant of the earlier Phoenician alphabet. The Samaritan alphabet is close to the script that appears on many Ancient Hebrew coins and inscriptions, */w/ has shifted to /b/ everywhere except in the conjunction ו- and where it is pronounced as /w/. */ɬ/ has merged with /ʃ/, unlike in all other contemporary Hebrew traditions in which it is pronounced /s/, the laryngeals /ʔ ħ h ʕ/ have become /ʔ/ or null everywhere, except before /a ɒ/ where */ħ ʕ/ sometimes become /ʕ/. /q/ is sometimes pronounced as, though not in Pentateuch reading, /q/ may also be pronounced as, but this occurs only rarely and in fluent reading. Phonemic length is contrastive, e. g. /rɒb/ רב great vs. /rɒːb/ רחב wide, long vowels are usually the result of the elision of guttural consonants. /i/ and /e/ are both realized as in closed syllables, e. g. /bit/ בית house /abbət/ הבית the house /ger/ גר /aggər/ הגר. In other cases, stressed /i/ shifts to /e/ when that syllable is no longer stressed, e. g. /dabbirti/ דברתי but דברתמה /dabbertimma/. /u/ and /o/ only contrast in open syllables, e. g. ידו /jedu/ his hand ידיו /jedo/ his hands. In other environments, /o/ appears in closed syllables and /u/ in open syllables, stress generally differs from other traditions, being found usually on the penultimate and sometimes on the ultimate. This, masc. ze, fem. zéot, pl. ílla, when suffixes are added, ê and ô in the last syllable may become î and û, bôr pit > búrôt pits. Note also af anger > éppa her anger, segolates behave more or less as in other Hebrew varieties, beţen stomach > báţnek your stomach, ke′seph silver > ke′sefánu our silver, dérek > dirkakimma your road but áreş earth > árşak your earth. The definite article is a- or e-, and causes gemination of the consonant, unless it is a guttural, it is written with a he, but as usual. Thus, for example, énnar / ánnar = the youth, ellêm = the meat, regular plural suffixes are -êm masc. -ôt fem, eyyamêm the days, elamôt dreams, affixes are, in, using, pronounced, b- before a vowel, b-érbi = with a sword, b-íštu with his wife
22.
Samaritans
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The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant originating from the Israelites of the Ancient Near East. Samaritans used to include descendants who ascribed to the Benjamin tribe, in the Talmud, a central post-exilic religious text of Rabbinic Judaism, the Samaritans are called Cutheans, referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq. In the Biblical account, however, Kuthah was one of cities from which people were brought to Samaria. Genetically, modern Samaritan populations are found to have greater affinity genetically to Jews than to neighbouring Palestinian Arabs. This suggests that the Samaritans remained an isolated population. The Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, a closely related to Judaism. The Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of Israel from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan, once a large community, the Samaritan population appears to have shrunk significantly in the wake of the bloody suppression of the Samaritan Revolts against the Byzantine Empire. Conversion to Christianity under the Byzantines also reduced their numbers, conversions to Islam took place as well, and by the mid Middle Ages Benjamin of Tudela estimated only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in Palestine and Syria. As of January 1,2015, the population was 777, most Samaritans in Holon and Qiryat Luza today speak Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew and later Aramaic were languages in use by the Jewish, Samaritans have a standalone religious status in Israel, and there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice-versa due to marriages. One example is Israeli TV personality Sofi Tsedaka, who converted to Rabbinic Judaism at the age of 18. Samaritans with Israeli citizenship are obligated to undertake service in the Israel Defense Forces. There is conflict over the etymology of the name for the Samaritans in Hebrew and this has accompanied controversy over whether the Samaritans are named after the geographic area of Samaria, or whether the area received its name from the group. This distinction is controversial in part because different interpretations can be used to justify or deny claims of ancestry over this region, Biblical Hebrew Šomerim ) Guardians comes from the Hebrew Semitic root שמר, which means to watch, guard. Historically, Samaria was the key geographical concentration of the Samaritan community, thus, it may suggest the region of Samaria is named after the Samaritans, rather than the Samaritans being named after the region. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, which would appear to mean inhabitants of Samaria. This is a politically sensitive distinction, according to Samaritan tradition, Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan and the tribes of Israel settled the land. The two mountains were used to symbolize the significance of the commandments and serve as a warning to whoever disobeyed them
23.
Samaritan Pentateuch
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The Samaritan Pentateuch, also known as the Samaritan Torah, is a text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, written in the Samaritan alphabet and used as a scripture by the Samaritans. It constitutes their entire biblical canon, some six thousand differences exist between the Samaritan and the Masoretic Text. Nearly two thousand of these textual variations agree with the Koine Greek Septuagint and some are shared with the Latin Vulgate. Throughout their history, Samaritans have made use of translations of the Samaritan Pentateuch into Aramaic, Greek, some Pentateuchal manuscripts discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls have been identified as bearing a pre-Samaritan text type. Samaritans believe that God authored their Pentateuch and gave Moses the first copy along with the two containing the Ten Commandments. They believe that they preserve this divinely composed text uncorrupted to the present day, Samaritans commonly refer to their Pentateuch as קושטה. Samaritans include only the Pentateuch in their biblical canon and they do not recognize divine authorship or inspiration in any other book in the Jewish Tanakh. A Samaritan Book of Joshua partly based upon the Tanakhs Book of Joshua exists, according to a view based on the biblical Book of Ezra, the Samaritans are the people of Samaria who parted ways with the people of Judah in the Persian period. The Samaritans believe that it was not they, but the Jews, modern scholarship connects the formation of the Samaritan community with events which followed the Babylonian Captivity. One view is that the Samaritans are the people of the Kingdom of Israel who separated from the Judaites, others believe that the real schism between the peoples did not take place until Hasmonean times when the Gerizim temple was destroyed in 128 BCE by John Hyrcanus. The script of the Samaritan Pentateuch, its connections at many points with the Septuagint. Manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch are written in a different Hebrew script than is used in other Hebrew Pentateuchs, Samaritans employ the Samaritan alphabet which is derived from the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet used by the Israelite community prior to the Babylonian captivity. Afterwards, Jews adopted a script based on the Aramaic alphabet that developed into the Hebrew alphabet, originally all manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch consisted of unvocalized text written using only the letters of the Samaritan alphabet. Beginning in the 12th century, some show a partial vocalization resembling the Jewish Tiberian vocalization used in Masoretic manuscripts. More recently a few manuscripts have produced with full vocalization. However, many extant manuscripts show no tendency towards vocalization, the Pentateuchal text is divided into 904 paragraphs. Divisions between sections of text are marked with various combinations of lines, dots or an asterisk, the critical apparatus accompanying the London Polyglots publication of the Samaritan Pentateuch lists six thousand instances where the Samaritan differs from the Masoretic Text. However, as different printed editions of the Samaritan Pentateuch are based upon different sets of manuscripts, only a minority are significant, most can be categorized as one of the following types, More matres lectionis in the Samaritan Pentateuch to indicate vowels compared with the Masoretic
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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
25.
Israel Museum
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The Israel Museum was founded in 1965 as Israels national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. An urn-shaped building on the grounds of the museum, the Shrine of the Book, houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and it is one of the largest museums in the region. Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek was the spirit behind the establishment of the Israel Museum, one of the leading art. Since its establishment in 1965, the Museum has built up a collection of nearly 500,000 objects, James S. Snyder, former Deputy Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, was appointed director of the museum in 1997. From 1965, the museum was housed in a series of buildings designed by the Russian-born Israeli architect Alfred Mansfeld. A $100-million campaign to renovate the museum and double its space was completed in July 2010. The wings for archaeology, the arts, and Jewish art and life were completely rebuilt. The passageways that connect between the buildings and five new pavilions were designed by James Carpenter, the museum covers nearly 50,000 sq. meters and attracts 800,000 visitors a year, including 100,000 children who visit and attend classes in its Youth Wing. This narrative is supplemented by thematic groupings highlighting aspects of ancient Israeli archaeology that are unique to the history, among them Hebrew writing, glass. A special gallery at the entrance to the wing showcases new findings, the Shrine of the Book houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world, as well as rare early medieval biblical manuscripts. The scrolls were discovered in 1947–56 in 11 caves in and around the Wadi Qumran, the building consists of a white dome over a building located two-thirds below the ground. The dome is reflected in a pool of water that surrounds it, across from the white dome is a black basalt wall. The interior of the shrine was designed to depict the environment in which the scrolls were found, there is also a permanent display on life in the Qumran, where the scrolls were written. The entire structure was designed to resemble a pot in which the scrolls were found, the shrine was designed by Armand Bartos and Frederick Kiesler, and was opened in 1965. As the fragility of the scrolls makes it impossible to display all on a continuous basis, after a scroll has been exhibited for 3–6 months, it is removed from its showcase and placed temporarily in a special storeroom, where it rests from exposure. The museum also holds other rare ancient manuscripts and displays the Aleppo Codex, originally constructed on the grounds of Jerusalem’s Holyland Hotel, the model, which includes a replica of Herods Temple, is now a permanent feature of the museums 20-acre campus. The Israel Museum holds a collection of paintings representing a wide range of periods, styles, subjects
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Samaritan alphabet
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Samaritan is a direct descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which was a variety of the Phoenician alphabet in which large parts of the Hebrew Bible were originally penned. All these scripts are believed to be descendants of the Proto-Sinaitic script and that script was used by the ancient Israelites, both Jews and Samaritans. The better-known square script Hebrew alphabet traditionally used by Jews is a version of the Aramaic alphabet which they adopted from the Persian Empire. After the fall of the Persian Empire, Judaism used both scripts before settling on the Aramaic form, for a limited time thereafter, the use of paleo-Hebrew among Jews was retained only to write the Tetragrammaton, but soon that custom was also abandoned. The Samaritan alphabet first became known to the Western world with the publication of a manuscript of the Samaritan Pentateuch in 1631 by Jean Morin. In 1616 the traveler Pietro della Valle had purchased a copy of the text in Damascus, the table below shows the development of the Samaritan script. On the left are the corresponding Hebrew letters for comparison, column I is the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. Column X shows the form of the letters. Samaritan script was added to the Unicode Standard in October 2009 with the release of version 5.2, the Unicode block for Samaritan is U+0800–U+083F, Flôrenṭîn, Moše. Late Samaritan Hebrew, A Linguistic Analysis Of Its Different Types, a Samaritan Bible, at the British library Omniglot. com - Samaritan alphabet Link to free Samaritan font
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Diaspora
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A diaspora is a scattered population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic locale. Diaspora can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland, some diaspora communities maintain strong political ties with their homeland. Other qualities that may be typical of many diasporas are thoughts of return, relationships with communities in the diaspora. The term is derived from the Greek verb διασπείρω, I scatter, I spread about, an example of a diaspora from classical antiquity is the century-long exile of the Messenians under Spartan rule and the Ageanites as described by Thucydides in his history of the Peloponnesian wars. It subsequently came to be used to refer to the movements of the dispersed ethnic population of Israel. The wider application of diaspora evolved from the Assyrian two-way mass deportation policy of conquered populations to deny future territorial claims on their part, an academic field, diaspora studies, has become established relating to this sense of the word. Some writers have noted that diaspora may result in a loss of nostalgia for a home as people re-root in a series of meaningful displacements. In this sense, individuals may have multiple homes throughout their diaspora, diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from that of the population in the original place of settlement. Over time, remotely separated communities tend to vary in culture, traditions, language, the last vestiges of cultural affiliation in a diaspora is often found in community resistance to language change and in maintenance of traditional religious practice. In an article published in 1991, William Safran set out six rules to distinguish diasporas from migrant communities, while Safrans definitions were influenced by the idea of the Jewish diaspora, he recognised the expanding use of the term. Rogers Brubaker also notes that use of the diaspora has been widening. Brubaker has used the WorldCat database to show that 17 out of the 18 books on diaspora published between 1900 and 1910 were on the Jewish diaspora. The majority of works in the 1960s were also about the Jewish diaspora, the paradigmatic case was, of course, the Jewish diaspora, some dictionary definitions of diaspora, until recently, did not simply illustrate but defined the word with reference to that case. Brubaker argues that the expansion of the use of the phrase extended it to other, similar cases, such as the Armenian. Brubaker notes that, Albanians, Basques, Hindu Indians, Irish, Japanese, Kashmiri, Koreans, Kurds, Palestinians, furthermore, labour migrants who maintain emotional and social ties with a homeland have also been described as diasporas. In further cases of the use of the term, the reference to the conceptual homeland – to the classical diasporas – has become more attenuated still, to the point of being lost altogether. Brubaker notes that, as of 2005, there were also academic books or articles on the Dixie, white, liberal, gay, queer, professional communities of individuals no longer in their homeland can also be considered diaspora. For example, science diasporas are communities of scientists who conduct their research away from their homeland, one of the largest diaspora of modern times is the African Diaspora, which dates back several centuries
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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
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Rashi
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His commentary on the Talmud, which covers nearly all of the Babylonian Talmud, has been included in every edition of the Talmud since its first printing by Daniel Bomberg in the 1520s. His commentary on Tanakh—especially on the Chumash —is an indispensable aid to students of all levels, the latter commentary alone serves as the basis for more than 300 supercommentaries which analyze Rashis choice of language and citations, penned by some of the greatest names in rabbinic literature. Rashis surname, Yitzhaki, derives from his fathers name, Yitzhak, the acronym is sometimes also fancifully expanded as Rabban Shel YIsrael which means the rabbi of Israel, or as Rabbenu SheYichyeh. He may be cited in Hebrew and Aramaic texts as Shlomo son of Rabbi Yitzhak, Shlomo son of Yitzhak, Shlomo Yitzhaki, in older literature, Rashi is sometimes referred to as Jarchi or Yarhi, his abbreviated name being interpreted as Rabbi Shlomo Yarhi. Simon and Wolf claimed that only Christian scholars referred to Rashi as Jarchi, bernardo de Rossi, however, demonstrated that Hebrew scholars also referred to Rashi as Yarhi. The evolution of this term has been thoroughly traced, Rashi was an only child born at Troyes, Champagne, in northern France. His mothers brother was Simon the Elder, Rabbi of Mainz, Simon was a disciple of Rabbeinu Gershom Meor HaGolah, who died that same year. In his voluminous writings, Rashi himself made no claim at all. The main early rabbinical source about his ancestry, Responsum No.29 by Solomon Luria and his fame later made him the subject of many legends. One tradition contends that his parents were childless for many years, Rashis father, Yitzhak, a poor winemaker, once found a precious jewel and was approached by non-Jews who wished to buy it to adorn their idol. Yitzhak agreed to travel with them to their land, but en route, another legend also states that Rashis parents moved to Worms, Germany while Rashis mother was pregnant. As she walked down one of the streets in the Jewish quarter. She turned and pressed herself against a wall, which opened to receive her and this miraculous niche is still visible in the wall of the Worms Synagogue. According to tradition, Rashi was first brought to learn Torah by his father on Shavuot day at the age of five and his father was his main Torah teacher until his death when Rashi was still a youth. At the age of 17 he married and soon went to learn in the yeshiva of Rabbi Yaakov ben Yakar in Worms. When Rabbi Yaakov died in 1064, Rashi continued learning in Worms for another year in the yeshiva of his relative, Rabbi Isaac ben Eliezer Halevi, Rashis teachers were students of Rabbeinu Gershom and Rabbi Eliezer Hagadol, leading Talmudists of the previous generation. From his teachers, Rashi imbibed the traditions pertaining to the Talmud as they had been passed down for centuries, as well as an understanding of the Talmuds unique logic. Rashi took concise, copious notes from what he learned in yeshiva and he returned to Troyes at the age of 25, after which time his mother died, and he was asked to join the Troyes Beth din
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Jacob ben Asher
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Jacob was an influential Medieval rabbinic authority. He is often referred to as the Baal ha-Turim, after his work in halakha. The work was divided into 4 sections, each called a tur and he was the third son of the Rabbi Asher ben Jehiel, a Rabbi of the Holy Roman Empire who moved to Castile. Besides his father, who was his teacher, Jacob quotes very often in the Turim his elder brother Jehiel, once his brother Judah. According to many, Jacob moved to Castile with his father and was not born there, some say Jacob succeeded his father as the rabbi of the Jewish community of Toledo, while others say his brother Judah ben Asher did. His brothers were rabbis of different communities in Iberia. Arbaah Turim, one of the most important halachic books of all times, sefer ha-Remazim, or Kitzur Piske ha-Rosh, an abridgment of his fathers compendium of the Talmud, in which he condensed his fathers decisions, omitting the casuistry. Rimze Baal ha-Turim, a commentary on the Pentateuch, which is printed in virtually all Jewish editions of the Pentateuch. This concise commentary consists of mystical and symbolical references in the Torah text, often using gematria, perush Al ha-Torah, a less known commentary on the Pentateuch, taken mainly from Nachmanides, but without his cabalistic and philosophical interpretations. Jacob quotes many other commentators, among them Saadia Gaon, Rashi, Joseph Dara, Works of Jacob ben Ascher in the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. Retrieved 2010-04-20 Works written by or about Jacob ben Asher at Wikisource
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Mizrahi Jews
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Yemeni Jews are sometimes also included, but their history is separate from Babylonian Jewry. The use of the term Mizrahi can be somewhat controversial, before the establishment of the State of Israel, Mizrahi Jews did not identify themselves as a separate Jewish subgroup. Instead, Mizrahi Jews generally characterized themselves as Sephardi, as follow the traditions of Sephardic Judaism. From the point of view of the official Israeli rabbinate, any rabbis of Mizrahi origin in Israel are under the jurisdiction of the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, as of 2005, over 61% of Israeli Jews are of at least partial Mizrahi ancestry. Mizrahi is literally translated as Oriental, Eastern, מזרח, Hebrew for east, in the past the word Mizrahim, corresponding to the Arabic word Mashriqiyyun, referred to the natives of Syria, Iraq and other Asian countries, as distinct from those of North Africa. In medieval and early times the corresponding Hebrew word maarav was used for North Africa. In Talmudic and Geonic times, however, this word maarav referred to the land of Israel as contrasted with Babylonia, for this reason many object to the use of Mizrahi to include Moroccan and other North African Jews. In modern Israeli usage, it refers to all Jews from Central and West Asian countries, the term came to be widely used more by Mizrahi activists in the early 1990s. Since then in Israel it has become an accepted semi-official and media designation, most of the Mizrahi activists actually originated from North African Jewish communities, traditionally called Westerners, rather than Easterners. g. Moroccan Jew, or prefer to use the old term Sephardic in its broader meaning, today, many identify all non-Ashkenazi rite Jews as Sephardic - in modern Hebrew Sfaradim, mixing ancestral origin and religious rite. This broader definition of Sephardim as including all, or most, the reason for this classification of all Mizrahim under Sephardic rite is that most Mizrahi communities use much the same religious rituals as Sephardim proper due to historical reasons. The prevalence of the Sephardic rite among Mizrahim is partially a result of Sephardim proper joining some of Mizrahi communities following the 1492 expulsion from Sepharad. Even before this assimilation, the rite of many Jewish Oriental communities was already closer to the Sephardi rite than to the Ashkenazi one. Many of the Sephardic Jews exiled from Spain resettled in greater or lesser numbers in many Arabic-speaking countries, such as Syria, in Syria, most eventually intermarried with and assimilated into the larger established communities of Arabic-speaking Jews and Mizrahi Jews. In some North African countries such as Morocco, Sephardic Jews came in greater numbers, in Arab nations, Mizrahim most often speak Arabic, although Arabic is now mainly used as a second language, especially by the older generation. Most of the many notable philosophical, religious and literary works of the Jews in Spain, North Africa, Neo-Aramaic is a Semitic language closely related to Hebrew. It is identified as a Jewish language, since it is the language of major Jewish texts such as the Talmud and Zohar, traditionally, Aramaic has been a language of Talmudic debate in yeshivoth, as many rabbinic texts are written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. The current alphabet used for Hebrew, known as Assyrian lettering or the script, was in fact borrowed from Aramaic
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Spanish and Portuguese Jews
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Over half of Spains Jewish origin population had converted to Catholicism as a result of the religious anti-Jewish persecution and pogroms which occurred in 1391. Between 40,000 and 80,000 did not convert, many of Spains Jews who left Spain as Jews also initially moved to Portugal, where they were subsequently forcibly converted to the Catholic Church. It is the collective of these communities, and their descendants, which are known as Western Sephardim, the main Western Sephardic Jewish communities developed in Western Europe, Italy, and the non-Iberian regions of the Americas. The term Western Sephardim is frequently used in research literature to refer to Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Similar considerations may have played a role for ethnic Sephardic Jews in the French regions of Bayonne and Bordeaux, as the term Sephardim necessarily connotes a link with Spain, the distinguishing feature of Portuguese Jews or Jews of the Portuguese Nation was the added link with Portugal. Thus, as a subset of the Sephardim, Portuguese and Spanish, finally, almost all organised communities in this group traditionally employed Portuguese rather than Spanish as their official or working language. In Italy, the term Spanish Jews is frequently used, but it includes descendants of Jews expelled as Jews from the Kingdom of Naples, as well as Spanish and Portuguese Jews proper. In Venice, Spanish and Portuguese Jews were often described as Ponentine, occasionally Italian Jews distinguish between the Portuguese Jews of Pisa and Livorno and the Spanish Jews of Venice, Modena and elsewhere. The scholar Joseph Dan distinguishes medieval Sephardim from Renaissance Sephardim, in reference to the times of each groupings formative contacts with Spanish language. The term Sephardi means Spanish or Hispanic, and is derived from Sepharad, the location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified by later Jews as Hispania, that is, the Iberian Peninsula. Sepharad still means Spain in modern Hebrew, during their period as New Christians, many conversos continued to practise their Jewish faith in secrecy as best they could. Those New Christian conversos of Jeiwsh origin who maintained crypto-Jewish practices in secret were termed marranos by Old Christian Spaniards, for Spanish and Portuguese Jews, their historical period as conversos has shaped their identity, culture, and practices. For centuries, the Sephardic Jewish communities under Ottoman rule provided spiritual leadership to the dispersed Sephardim through their contributions to the Responsa literature, the common feature shared by Western Sephardim to Sephardic Bnei Anusim and Neo-Western Sephardim is that all three are descended from conversos. The Oporto communitys return to Judaism was led by the returnee to Judaism Captain Artur Carlos de Barros Basto, as mentioned, these communities of modern-day returnees to Judaism are among the first in the emergence of the nascent Neo-Western Sephardim. Neo-Western Sephardim are the returnees to Judaism throughout Iberia and Ibero-America emerging from among the population of Sephardic Bnei Anusim. Even more recent examples of such Neo-Western Sephardim communities include the Belmonte Jews in Portugal, and the Xuetes of Spain. In the last five to ten years, organized groups of Benei Anusim have been established in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, some members of these communities have formally reverted to Judaism. Spanish and Portuguese Jews were originally descended from New Christian conversos whose descendants later left the Iberian peninsula, the main wave of conversions, often forced, followed the massacre of 1391 in Spain
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Polymer clay
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Polymer clay is a type of hardenable modeling clay based on the polymer polyvinyl chloride. Polymer clay is used for making arts and craft items. Art made from polymer clay can now be found in major museums, Bakelite, an early plastic, was popular with designers and was an early form of polymer clay, but the phenol base of uncured Bakelite was flammable and was eventually discontinued. Polymer clays were first formulated as a replacement for Bakelite. One of these formulations was brought to the attention of German doll maker Käthe Kruse in 1939. While it was not suitable for use in her factory, Kruse gave some to her daughter Sophie, who was known in the family as Fifi, the formulation was later sold to Eberhardt Faber and marketed under the name FIMO. Polymer clays contain a basis of PVC resin and a liquid plasticizer, polymer clay plastisol is also categorized as a plastigel because of its rheological properties. It is a high yield thixotropic material, when a sufficient force is applied the material yields, flows like a liquid until that force is removed. This plasticity is what makes it useful as modeling clay as opposed to putty or paste, plastigels retain their shape even when heat is applied, which is why polymer clay does not melt or droop when oven cured. Various gelling agents are added to give it this property such as aminated bentonite, metallic soaps, the base resin can be modified in various ways. Mineral oil, lecithin, and odorless mineral spirits can be added to reduce its viscosity or alter its working properties, small amounts of zinc oxide, kaolin, or other fillers are sometimes added to increase opacity, elastic modulus, or compression strength. Polymer clay is available in colors, which can be mixed to create a wide range of colors or gradient blends. Special-effect colors and composites include translucent, fluorescent, phosphorescent, and faux pearls, metallics, polymer clay remains workable until cured generally. Curing occurs at temperatures from between 265 °F to 275 °F sustained for 15 minutes per 1⁄4 inch of thickness and this temperature is significantly less than for mineral clays and can be achieved using a home oven. The clay does not shrink when cured, brands of polymer clay include Fimo, Sculpey, Premo, Cernit, Formello, Modello, Du-Kit, Pardo and Kato Polyclay. A home pasta-making machine is a popular tool for polymer clay artists. It is used to create sheets of uniform thickness, to mix colors or created variegated sheets, polymer clay generally needs to be conditioned prior to use. This involves kneading the clay by hand, passing it between two rollers, or using a mixer to break up any resin particle adhesions
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Names of God in Judaism
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The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton YHWH. It is frequently anglicized as Jehovah and Yahweh and written in most English editions of the Bible as the Lord owing to the Jewish tradition of reading it as Adonai out of respect. Rabbinic Judaism describes seven names which are so holy that, once written, should not be erased, The Tetragrammaton, El, Eloah, Elohim, Shaddai, Ehyeh, and Tzevaot. The documentary hypothesis proposes that the Torah was compiled from original sources. The seven names of God that, once written, cannot be erased because of their holiness are the Tetragrammaton, El, Elohim, Eloah, Elohai, El Shaddai, in addition, the name Jah—because it forms part of the Tetragrammaton—is similarly protected. Rabbi Jose considered Tzevaot a common name and Rabbi Ishmael that Elohim was, all other names, such as Merciful, Gracious and Faithful, merely represent attributes that are also common to human beings. The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is YHWH, Hebrew is a right-to-left abjad, so the words letters Yōd, Hē, Vav, Hē are usually taken for consonants and expanded to Yahweh or Jehovah in English. The Tetragrammaton first appears in Genesis and occurs 6828 times in total in the Stuttgart edition of the Masoretic Text and it is thought to be an archaic third-person singular imperfect tense of the verb to be. This agrees with the passage in Exodus where God names Himself as I Will Be What I Will Be using the first-person singular imperfect tense. Rabbinical Judaism teaches that the name is forbidden to all except the High Priest and he then pronounces the name just as it is written. As each blessing was made, the people in the courtyard were to prostrate themselves completely as they heard it spoken aloud. As the Temple has been destroyed since CE70, most modern Jews never pronounce YHWH but instead read Adonai during prayer and while reading the Torah and as HaShem at other times. Similarly, the Vulgate used Dominus and most English translations of the Bible write the Lord for YHWH and the Lord God for Adonai YHWH instead of transcribing the name. Or Theos for occurrences of the name. )El appears in Ugaritic, Phoenician and other 2nd, in the Hebrew Bible El appears very occasionally alone, but usually with some epithet or attribute attached, in which cases it can be understood as the generic god. A common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is Elohim, despite the -im ending common to many plural nouns in Hebrew, the word Elohim when referring to God is grammatically singular, and takes a singular verb in the Hebrew Bible. When the Hebrew Bible uses elohim not in reference to God, there are a few other such uses in Hebrew, for example Behemoth. In Modern Hebrew, the singular word baalim looks plural, a number of scholars have traced the etymology to the Semitic root *yl, to be first, powerful, despite some difficulties with this view. Elohim is thus the plural construct powers, Hebrew grammar allows for this form to mean He is the Power over powers, just as the word Baalim means owner
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Caesar cipher
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In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesars cipher, the shift cipher, Caesars code or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet. For example, with a shift of 3, D would be replaced by A, E would become B. The method is named after Julius Caesar, who used it in his private correspondence, the encryption step performed by a Caesar cipher is often incorporated as part of more complex schemes, such as the Vigenère cipher, and still has modern application in the ROT13 system. As with all single-alphabet substitution ciphers, the Caesar cipher is easily broken, the transformation can be represented by aligning two alphabets, the cipher alphabet is the plain alphabet rotated left or right by some number of positions. Plaintext, THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG Ciphertext, QEB NRFZH YOLTK CLU GRJMP LSBO QEB IXWV ALD Deciphering is done in reverse, with a right shift of 3. The encryption can also be represented using modular arithmetic by first transforming the letters into numbers, according to the scheme, encryption of a letter x by a shift n can be described mathematically as, E n = mod 26. Decryption is performed similarly, D n = mod 26, the replacement remains the same throughout the message, so the cipher is classed as a type of monoalphabetic substitution, as opposed to polyalphabetic substitution. The Caesar cipher is named after Julius Caesar, who, according to Suetonius, while Caesars was the first recorded use of this scheme, other substitution ciphers are known to have been used earlier. If he had anything confidential to say, he wrote it in cipher, that is, by so changing the order of the letters of the alphabet, that not a word could be made out. If anyone wishes to decipher these, and get at their meaning, he must substitute the fourth letter of the alphabet, namely D, for A, there is no record at that time of any techniques for the solution of simple substitution ciphers. The earliest surviving records date to the 9th century works of Al-Kindi in the Arab world with the discovery of frequency analysis, a Caesar cipher with a shift of one is used on the back of the mezuzah to encrypt the names of God. This may be a holdover from a time when Jewish people were not allowed to have mezuzot. The letters of the cryptogram themselves comprise a religiously significant divine name which Orthodox belief holds keeps the forces of evil in check, in the 19th century, the personal advertisements section in newspapers would sometimes be used to exchange messages encrypted using simple cipher schemes. Kahn describes instances of lovers engaging in secret communications enciphered using the Caesar cipher in The Times, Caesar ciphers can be found today in childrens toys such as secret decoder rings. A construction of 2 rotating disks with a Caesar cipher can be used to encrypt or decrypt the code, the Vigenère cipher uses a Caesar cipher with a different shift at each position in the text, the value of the shift is defined using a repeating keyword. If the keyword is as long as the message, chosen random, never known to anyone else, and is never reused. The conditions are so difficult they are, in practical effect, keywords shorter than the message, introduce a cyclic pattern that might be detected with a statistically advanced version of frequency analysis
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Chassidei Ashkenaz
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The Hasidim of Ashkenaz were a Jewish mystical, ascetic movement in the German Rhineland during the 12th and 13th centuries. The movement was known for its strict, almost religious observance, asceticism, some posit that its theology fits into the general canon of Jewish mysticism. It certainly parallels other Jewish mysticism, however in other ways it was very original, the extent of this community’s effect and influence during Middle Age German Judaism has not been studied. Rabbi Judah the Pious of Regensburg was the foremost leader of the Ashkenazi Hasidim and his book Sefer Hasidim is the most significant relic of this movement. He was born in 1150 in Speyer and died in 1217 and he was a strong Talmudist and attended Tosafist schools. His experiences as a Tosafist may have contributed to his plea to focus on the practical aspects of the Talmud. He was taught the Kabbala at an age by his father. Samuel the Pious is said to have contributed some of the sections in Sefer Hasidim and he authored the Shir Hakavod, which poetically describes Ashkenazi Hasidic theology, namely, the presence of the divine glory. He also authored the Book of the Fear of God and Book of Repentance, Rabbi Eleazar of Worms was a leading Talmudist and Kabbalist in the 13th century and was the prime disciple of Judah the Pious. He is best known for his work, Sefer HaRokeah, a guide to ethics. He was the last major member attributed to this movement and died in 1230, the theology of the Ashkenazi Hasidim is certainly independent and unique, however, it does contain meaningful similarities to the theologies of both the early kabbalists and of Saadia Gaon. Saadia, in his Book of Beliefs and Opinions grapples with the conundrum, throughout the Tanakh. These descriptions include majestic images of God sitting on His heavenly throne, since believing that God has perceivable, physical features is blasphemous for Saadia, he concludes that the visions do not portray God, but rather portray Gods created glory. This glory is God’s created messenger, his angel, created to give the prophets something concrete to visualize. The torat hakavod of the Ashkenazi Hasidim echoes Saadias theory, for the latter, the glory was not created by God, but emanated from God in a similar manner to the way that light emanates from the sun. What emerged is a system composed of God, the higher Kavod. God is beyond comprehension and impossible for man to relate to. The higher Kavod emanates from God, and is very distant from man
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Maimonides
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In his time, he was also a preeminent astronomer and physician. Born in Cordova, Almoravid Empire on Passover Eve,1135 or 1138, he worked as a rabbi, physician and he died in Egypt on December 12,1204, whence his body was taken to the lower Galilee and buried in Tiberias. Nonetheless, he was acknowledged as among the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history. His fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah still carries significant canonical authority as a codification of Talmudic law and he is sometimes known as ha Nesher ha Gadol in recognition of his outstanding status as a bona fide exponent of the Oral Torah. Aside from being revered by Jewish historians, Maimonides also figures prominently in the history of Islamic. Influenced by Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and his contemporary Averroes, he in his turn influenced other prominent Arab and Muslim philosophers and he became a prominent philosopher and polymath in both the Jewish and Islamic worlds. His full Hebrew name is Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, whose acronym forms Rambam and his full Arabic name is Abū ʿImrān Mūsā bin Maimūn bin ʿUbaidallāh al-Qurtabī or Mūsā bin Maymūn for short. In Latin, the Hebrew ben becomes the Greek−style suffix -ides to form Moses Maimonides, Maimonides was born in Córdoba during what some scholars consider to be the end of the golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula, after the first centuries of the Moorish rule. At an early age, he developed an interest in sciences and he read those Greek philosophers accessible in Arabic translations, and was deeply immersed in the sciences and learning of Islamic culture. Maimonides was not known as a supporter of mysticism, although a strong type of mysticism has been discerned in his philosophy. He expressed disapproval of poetry, the best of which he declared to be false and this sage, who was revered for his personality as well as for his writings, led a busy life, and wrote many of his works while travelling or in temporary accommodation. Maimonides studied Torah under his father Maimon, who had in turn studied under Rabbi Joseph ibn Migash, a Berber dynasty, the Almohads, conquered Córdoba in 1148, and abolished dhimmi status in some of their territories. The loss of protected status threatened the Jewish and Christian communities with conversion to Islam, death. The historical records of abuses against Jews in the immediate post-1148 period are subject to different interpretations, Maimonidess family, along with most other Jews, chose exile. Some say, though, that it is likely that Maimonides feigned a conversion to Islam before escaping and this forced conversion was ruled legally invalid under Islamic law when brought up by a rival in Egypt. For the next ten years, Maimonides moved about in southern Spain, during this time, he composed his acclaimed commentary on the Mishnah in the years 1166–1168. Following this sojourn in Morocco, together with two sons, he sojourned in the Holy Land, before settling in Fustat, Egypt around 1168, while in Cairo, he studied in a yeshiva attached to a small synagogue. In the Holy Land, he prayed at the Temple Mount and he wrote that this day of visiting the Temple Mount was a day of holiness for him and his descendants
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Moses Isserles
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Moses Isserles, was an eminent Polish Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek. Isserles was born in Kraków, Poland and his father, Israel, was a prominent talmudist and independently wealthy, who had probably headed the community, his grandfather, Jehiel Luria, was the first rabbi of Brisk. He studied in Lublin under Rabbi Shalom Shachna, who became his father-in-law. Among his fellow pupils were his relative Solomon Luria —later a major disputant of many of Isserles halachic rulings, bezalel, an older brother of the Maharal. Rema’s first wife died young, at the age of 20 and he later married the sister of Joseph ben Mordechai Gershon Ha-Kohen. He returned to Kraków about 1550, when he established a yeshiva and, being a wealthy man. In his teaching, he was opposed to pilpul and he emphasized simple interpretation of the Talmud, in 1553 he was appointed as dayan, he also served on the Council of the Four Lands. He became a scholar and was approached by many other well-known rabbis, including Yosef Karo. He was one of the greatest Jewish scholars of Poland, and was the primary authority for European Jewry of his day. He died in Kraków and was buried next to his synagogue, on his tombstone is inscribed, From Moses to Moses there was none like Moses. Until the Second World War, thousands of pilgrims visited his grave annually on Lag Baomer, not only was Isserles a renowned Talmudic and legal scholar, he was also learned in Kabbalah, and studied history, astronomy and philosophy. He taught that “the aim of man is to search for the cause, maharshal reproached him for having based some of his decisions on Aristotle. Rabbi Isserles had several children, Drezil, wife of R. Bunem Meisels, a daughter whose name is unknown to us. A third daughter. who is unknown to us. He is buried in the eponymous Remuh Cemetery in Kraków, Isserles is perhaps best known for his halakhic works, chief among them his notes to the Shulchan Aruch by Yosef Karo. One of the things for which Rabbi Isserles is best known for is his approach to customs, on the contrary, he too expressed reverence and respect for it, and whenever possible endeavored to uphold it and also to explain its origin. Only, unlike many great Talmudic scholars, he refused to follow it blindly, when convinced of the unsound basis of a Minhag, he was ready to repudiate it regardless of its acceptance by the people. Furthermore, The Talmud is, of course, the reservoir to which R. Isserles turns as the first step in attempting to solve a problem
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