ABERLES, ISAAC B. ABRAHAM COHEN ẒEDEḲ OF CRACOW – Author of "Sefer Toledot Yiẓḥaḳ" (The Generation of Isaac), homilies on the Pentateuch, only the first part of which was published by his son Solomon, at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, in 1691 (see Benjacob, "Oẓar ha-Sefarim," p....
ABETMENT – In Homicide. The legal term for encouraging, aiding, or instigating an illegal act. The abettor may take no part in the actual commission of the offense and yet be liable for the thought or intention involved in his relations to...
ABI AND AB IN PROPER NAMES – Abi and Ab are used both as the first element, as in Abijah, Abishur, Abinoam, Abner, and as the second element, as in Eliab, Joab, and Ahab. Theirexact meaning is still under dispute. Each of the foregoing proper names may be a...
ABI AYUB – See Sulaiman ibn Almuallim
ABI SAHULA – See Isaac ben Solomon ibn Abu Sahula.
ABI ZIMRA – A family which can be traced from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, of which the following were the more important: Judah ben Ephraim, 1245-1330; Moses ben Judah; his son, Ephraim ben Moses, 1470; Abraham ben Meir, 1492;...
ABI ZIMRA, ABRAHAM BEN MEIR – Flourished in Malaga, and seems to have left his home in 1492, going to Oran, and dwelling later in Tlemçen. He enjoyed quite a reputation as a poet, but very few of his writings have been preserved. His composition ("My soul,...
ABI ZIMRA, DAVID BEN SOLOMON – See David ben Solomon Abi Zimra.
ABIAH – See Abijah.
ABIASAPH – See Ebiasaph.
ABIATHAR – Biblical Data: A son of Ahimelech or Ahijah (melech and yah apparently interchanging; compare I Sam. xiv. 3, xxii. 9); the chief priest of the sanctuary at Nob. He alone escaped from the massacre of his family by Saul (I Sam....
ABIATHAR – A Palestinian amora, the contemporary of R. Judah (217-299) and of his successor, R. Ḥisda, the head of the Sura Academy, with both of whom Abiathar maintained a correspondence. The great number of Babylonian students who...
ABIATHAR IBN CRESCAS HA-KOHEN – See Crescas, Abiathar ibn.
ABIATHAR, JOSEPH BEN ISAAC – See Abitur, Joseph ben Isaac.
ABIATHAR HA-KOHEN OF CAIRO – Nagid (chief) of the Egyptian Jews, which office he inherited from his ancestors. He flourished at the end of the eleventh century and is known to have died before 1112. He took a prominent part in the Messianic movement of the...
ABIATHAR HA-KOHEN OF SARAGOSSA – Founder of a widespread noble Spanish family that flourished in the fifteenth century. He had two daughters, Esther and Leah. Don Alphonso of Aragon, an illegitimate son of King John of Aragon, fell in love with Esther, who is...
ABIB – Name of the first month of the Hebrew year (Ex. xii. 2; compare xiii. 4), corresponding to the Babylonian and postexilian Hebrew Nisan. According to the Babylonian system, which probably prevailed in Palestine, it began in...
ABIBAS – A mythical son of R. Gamaliel, the teacher of Paul, concerning whom a Christian legend existed that he and his father were baptized, by John and Peter. Lucianus, bishop of Jerusalem in the year 415, wrote that Gamaliel appeared...
ABICHT, JOHANN GEORG – Christian Hebraist; born 1672 at Königsee, in the principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt; died 1740. He studied first at Jena and afterward at Leipsic. On the completion of his university course he became instructor in Oriental...
ABIDA – A son of Midian, and grandson of Abraham and Keturah (Gen. xxv. 4, and in the genealogical list in I Chron. i. 33). G. B. L.
ABIDAN – A son of Gideoni, chief of the tribe of Benjamin after the Exodus (Num. i. 11, ii. 22, vii. 60, 65, x. 24). G. B. L.
ABIEL – 1. Father of Kish and Ner, and grandfather of Saul (I Sam. ix. 1, xiv. 51). Another account makes him the great-grandfather of Saul; Ner, by that account, being the father, instead of the brother, of Kish. The mistake is...
ABIEZER – 1. A clan of Manasseh, the most important member of which was Gideon, in whose time the seat of the clan was at Ophrah on the western side of the Jordan (Josh. xvii. 2; Judges, vi. 11, 24, 34, viii. 2; I Chron. vii. 18; Num....
ABIEZER, JUDAH BEN ISAAC, of Tiktin – A Jewish author of the nineteenth century. He resided in Jerusalem and wrote "Mishmeret haBerit" (The Charge of the Covenant), a defense of Judaism against the irreligious, published in Jerusalem, 1846; "Sha'are Ẓedeḳ" (The...
ABIGAIL – 1. A daughter of Jesse and sister of David, who married Jether the Ishmaelite, and became the mother of Amasa (I Chron. ii. 16, 17). In II Sam. xvii. 25 she is againmentioned as the mother of Amasa, but is called Abigail the...