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Haham
''Hakham'' (or ''chakam(i), haham(i), hacham(i)''; he, חכם ', "wise") is a term in Judaism, meaning a wise or skillful man; it often refers to someone who is a great Torah scholar. It can also refer to any cultured and learned person: "He who says a wise thing is called a ''hakham'', even if he be not a Jew." Hence in Talmudic-Midrashic literature, wise gentiles are commonly called ' ("wise men of the nations of the world"). In Sephardic usage, ''hakham'' is a synonym for "rabbi". In ancient times ''Hakham'' as an official title is found as early as the first Sanhedrin, after the reconstruction of that body, when the Hadrianic religious persecutions had ceased. In addition to the nasi Simeon ben Gamliel, two other scholars stood at the head of the Sanhedrin, namely Nathan the Babylonian as '' Av Beit Din'' and Rabbi Meir as ''hakham''. Another ''hakham'' mentioned by name was Simon, the son of Judah the Prince, who after the death of his father officiated as ''hakham'', w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi ( he, רב ראשי ''Rav Rashi'') is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, Israel has had two chief rabbis, one Ashkenazi and one Sephardi. Cities with large Jewish communities may also have their own chief rabbis; this is especially the case in Israel but has also been past practice in major Jewish centers in Europe prior to the Holocaust. North American cities rarely have chief rabbis. One exception however is Montreal, with two—one for the Ashkenazi community, the other for the Sephardi. Jewish law provides no scriptural or Talmudic support for the post of a "chief rabbi." The office, however, is said by many to find its precedent in the religio-political authority figures of Jewish antiquity (e.g., kings, high priests, patriarches, exilarchs and ''gaonim''). T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish And Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the immediate generations following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, from Spain in 1492 and Expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Portugal, from Portugal in 1497. Although the 1492 and 1497 expulsions of unconverted Jews from Spain and Portugal were separate events from the Spanish Inquisition, Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions (which were established over a decade earlier in 1478), they were ultimately linked, as the Inquisition eventually also led to the fleeing out of Iberia of many descendants of Jewish converts to Catholicism in subsequent generations. Despite the fact that the original Edicts of Expulsion did not apply to Jewish-origin New Christian ''conversos'' —as these were now legally Chris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sephardi Jews
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefarditas or Hispanic Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula. The term, which is derived from the Hebrew ''Sepharad'' (), can also refer to the Mizrahi Jews of Western Asia and North Africa, who were also influenced by Sephardic law and customs. Many Iberian Jewish exiles also later sought refuge in Mizrahi Jewish communities, resulting in integration with those communities. The Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula prospered for centuries under the Muslim reign of Al-Andalus following the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, but their fortunes began to decline with the Christian ''Reconquista'' campaign to retake Spain. In 1492, the Alhambra Decree by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain called for the expulsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in the Koine Greek language. The Old Testament consists of many distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections: the first five books or Pentateuch (corresponds to the Jewish Torah); the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; the poetic and " Wisdom books" dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God. The books that compose the Old Testament canon and their order and names differ b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Names Of God In Islam
Names of God in Islam ( ar, أَسْمَاءُ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ , "''Allah's Beautiful Names''") are names attributed to God in Islam by Muslims. While some names are only in the Quran, and others are only in the hadith, there are some names which appear in both. List Hadith By what they said to Sahih Bukhari Hadith: There is another Sahih Muslim Hadith: The Quran refers to God's ''Most Beautiful Names'' (''al-ʾasmāʾ al-ḥusná'') in several Surahs. Gerhard Böwering refers to Surah 1(17:110)as the ''locus classicus'' to which explicit lists of 99 names used to be attached in tafsir. A cluster of more than a dozen Divine epithets which are included in such lists is found in Surah 59. Sunni mystic Ibn Arabi surmised that the 99 names are "outward signs of the universe's inner mysteries". Islamic mysticism There is a tradition in Sufism to the effect the 99 names of God point to a mystical " Most Supreme and Superior Name" (''ismu l-ʾAʿẓam' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muslim World
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In a modern geopolitical sense, these terms refer to countries in which Islam is widespread, although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion. The term Muslim-majority countries is an alternative often used for the latter sense. The history of the Muslim world spans about 1,400 years and includes a variety of socio-political developments, as well as advances in the arts, science, medicine, philosophy, law, economics and technology, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age. All Muslims look for guidance to the Quran and believe in the prophetic mission of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but disagreements on other matters have led to the appearance of different religious schools of thought and sects within Islam. In the modern era, mos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shlomo Ibn Aderet
Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet ( he, שלמה בן אברהם אבן אדרת or Solomon son of Abraham son of Aderet) (1235 – 1310) was a medieval rabbi, halakhist, and Talmudist. He is widely known as the Rashba (Hebrew: ), the Hebrew acronym of his title and name: Rabbi Shlomo ben Avraham. The Rashba was born in Barcelona, Crown of Aragon, in 1235. He became a successful banker and leader of Spanish Jewry of his time. As a rabbinical authority his fame was such that he was designated as El Rab d'España ("The Rabbi of Spain"). He served as rabbi of the Main Synagogue of Barcelona for 50 years. He died in 1310. Biography His teachers were Nahmanides and Yonah Gerondi. He was a master in the study of the Talmud, and was not opposed to the Kabbala. Aderet was very active as a rabbi and as an author. Under his auspices and through his recommendation, part of the commentary on the Mishnah by Maimonides was translated from the Arabic into Hebrew. His Talmudic lectures ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tannaim
''Tannaim'' ( Amoraic Hebrew: תנאים , singular , ''Tanna'' "repeaters", "teachers") were the rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 10–220 CE. The period of the ''Tannaim'', also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 210 years. It came after the period of the ''Zugot'' ("pairs"), and was immediately followed by the period of the '' Amoraim'' ("interpreters"). The root ''tanna'' () is the Talmudic Aramaic equivalent for the Hebrew root ''shanah'' (), which also is the root-word of ''Mishnah''. The verb ''shanah'' () literally means "to repeat hat one was taught and is used to mean "to learn". The Mishnaic period is commonly divided up into five periods according to generations. There are approximately 120 known ''Tannaim''. The ''Tannaim'' lived in several areas of the Land of Israel. The spiritual center of Judaism at that time was Jerusalem, but after the destruction of the city and the Second Temple, Yohanan ben Zakkai an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aphrahat
Aphrahat (c. 280–c. 345; syr, ܐܦܪܗܛ ''Ap̄rahaṭ'', ar, أفراهاط الحكيم, , grc, Ἀφραάτης, and Latin ''Aphraates'') was a Syriac Christian author of the third century from the Persian / Sasanian Empire who composed a series of twenty-three expositions or homilies on points of Christian doctrine and practice. All his known works, the ''Demonstrations'', come from later on in his life. He was an ascetic and celibate, and was almost definitely a son of the covenant (an early Syriac form of communal monasticism). He may have been a bishop, and later Syriac tradition places him at the head of Mar Mattai Monastery near Mosul in what is now northern Iraq. He was a near contemporary to the slightly younger Ephrem the Syrian, but the latter lived within the sphere of the Roman Empire. Called the ''Persian Sage'' ( syr, ܚܟܝܡܐ ܦܪܣܝܐ, ''Ḥakkimā Pārsāyā''), Aphrahat witnessed to the concerns of the early church beyond the eastern boundaries of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seder Olam Zutta
Seder Olam Zutta (Hebrew: ) is an anonymous chronicle from 803 CE, called "Zuta" (= "smaller," or "younger") to distinguish it from the older ''Seder Olam Rabbah.'' This work is based upon, and to a certain extent completes and continues, the older aforementioned chronicle. It consists of two main parts: the first, comprising about three-fifths of the whole, deals with the chronology of the 50 generations from Adam to Jehoiakim (who, according to this chronicle, was the first of the Babylonian exilarch), the second deals with 39 generations of exilarchs, beginning with Jehoiachin and going until the 9th century CE. Contents The authorial intention of this work was to demonstrate that the Babylonian exilarchs were direct descendants of David, King of Israel, through a cascading genealogy. From Genesis to the Exile After a short introduction, taken from the ''Seder Olam Rabbah'', giving the general chronology from Adam to the destruction of the Second Temple (a period of 3,828 yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sofer
A sofer, sopher, sofer SeTaM, or sofer ST"M ( he, סופר סת״ם, "scribe"; plural of is , ; female: ) is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe Sifrei Kodesh (holy scrolls), tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot (ST"M, , is an abbreviation of these three terms) and other religious writings. By simple definition, soferim are copyists, but their religious role in Judaism is much more. Besides sifrei Torah, tefillin, and mezuzot, scribes are necessary to write the Five Megillot (scrolls of the Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, Book of Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Book of Lamentations), Nevi'im (the books of the prophets, used for reading the haftarah), and for , divorce documents. Many scribes also function as calligraphers—writing functional documents such as (marriage contracts), or ornamental and artistic renditions of religious texts, which do not require any scribal qualifications, and to which the rules on lettering and parchment specifications do not apply. The major halakha per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exilarch
The exilarch was the leader of the Jewish community in Persian Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) during the era of the Parthians, Sasanians and Abbasid Caliphate up until the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, with intermittent gaps due to ongoing political developments. The exilarch was regarded by the Jewish community as the royal heir of the House of David and held a place of prominence as both a rabbinical authority and as a noble within the Persian court. Within the Sasanian Empire, the exilarch was the political equivalent of the ''Catholicos'' of the Christian Church of the East, and was thus responsible for community-specific organizational tasks such as running the rabbinical courts, collecting taxes from Jewish communities, supervising and providing financing for the Talmudic academies in Babylonia, and the charitable re-distribution and financial assistance to needy members of the exile community. The position of exilarch was hereditary, held in continuity by a family t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
