ABOT DE-RABBI NATHAN – A work which in the form now extant contains a mixture of Mishnah and Midrash, and may be designated as a homiletical exposition of the Mishnaic treatise Pirḳe Abot, having for its foundation an older recension of the treatise....
ABRABALIA – Spanish statesmen who flourished in Aragon in the latterhalf of the thirteenth century. Joseph was minister of finance to King Pedro III. (1276-85). Solomon ben Adret refers to Joseph and Moses as the "two great princes." The...
ABRABANEL – See Abravanel.
ABRABANEL DORMIDO, DAVID (MANUEL MARTINEZ) – See Dormido, David Abravanel.
ABRACADABRA – Magic word or formula used in incantations, especially against intermittent fever or inflammation, the patient wearing an amulet upon his neck, with the following inscription: The underlying idea was to force the spirit of the...
ABRAHAM – Birth and Wanderings. —Biblical Data: According to the Bible, Abraham (or Abram) was the father of the Hebrews. The Biblical account of the life of Abram is found in Gen. xi. 26 to xxv. 10. According to this narrative, he was...
ABRAHAM, APOCALYPSE OF – An apocryphon that has been preserved in Old Slavonic literature. Its title does not fully explain its contents, for about one-third of it might more appropriately be called "The Legend of Abraham," as this contains an account...
ABRAHAM'S BOSOM – In the New Testament and in Jewish writings a term signifying the abodeof bliss in the other world. According to IV Macc. xiii. 17, the righteous who die for their faith are received by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in paradise...
ABRAHAM'S OAK – A famous and venerable oak (Quercus pseudo-coccifera) which still stands at Mamre, half an hour's journey west of Hebron, and is surrounded by a wall over which it projects. Josephus probably refers to it ("Ant." i. 10, § 4), or...
ABRAHAM, TESTAMENT OF – Recent Discovery of Book. An apocryphal book, published for the first time by Montague Rhodes James, in two different recensions, in Robinson's "Texts and Studies," ii. No. 2 (Cambridge, 1892), and translated from the Greek...
ABRAHAM, TOWER OF – Often mentioned in the Book of Jubilees as a mansion of great importance, said to have been built on the height of Hebron by Abraham, who bequeathed it to Jacob, his grandson (xxii. 24; xxix. 16, 19; xxxvi. 12-20; xxxvii. 14;...
ABRAHAM BEN AARON DE BOTON – See Boton, Abraham ben Aaron de.
ABRAHAM AARON BEN SHALOM BRODY – See Brody, Abraham Aaron ben Shalom.
ABRAHAM BEN AARON TROKI – See Troki, Abraham ben Aaron.
ABRAHAM ABELE BEN ABRAHAM SOLOMON – Known as Abele Posveller (from Poswol in the government of Kovno); acting rabbi of Wilna; died July 29, 1836. He was considered one of the leading Talmudists of his age. Although he has left no independent literary work, he...
ABRAHAM ABELE GOMBINER – Polish Talmudist; born about 1635 at Gombin, in Russian Poland; died at Kalisz about 1683. He was a son of Ḥayyim ha-Levi, who was killed by the Cossacks in 1655. Abraham was one of the most eminent Talmudists of his time; a...
ABRAHAM ABELE BEN JEREMIAH – Interpreter of the Masora; flourished in the middle of the eighteenth century at Kalwaria, in the government of Suwalki, Russian Poland. He wrote "Seder Abraham" (Order of Abraham), Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1752, containing...
ABRAHAM ABELE BEN NAPHTALI – Rabbi in Kherson in the first half of the nineteenth century; author of "Bet Abraham" (House of Abraham), Szydlkow, 1837, containing (1) notes on the ritual codes, chiefly excerpted from the literature of the responsa; and (2)...
ABRAHAM BEN ABIGDOR – Bohemian rabbi; born in the latter part of the fifteenth century; died at Prague, Oct. 7, 1542. For the last twenty years of his life he was rabbi of Prague, and as such had many pupils, among whom was Abraham Jaffe,father of...
ABRAHAM BEN ABIGDOR ḲARA – See Ḳanah, Abraham ben Abigdor.
ABRAHAM ABOAB – See under Aboab.
ABRAHAM, ABRAHAM – English author and communal worker; died March 31, 1863, at Liverpool. He resided at Liverpool for forty years, during thirty of which he took a leading part in the Jewish affairs of that city; holding various honorary offices...
ABRAHAM (ABRAM), JACOB – German medalist and lapidary; born at Strelitz in 1723; died at Berlin, June 17, 1800. He learned the art of engraving from a workman in the Polish town of Lissa. For nearly half a century he worked in the royal mints of Stettin...
ABRAHAM ABUSH BEN LEVI HIRSCH KATZENELLENBOGEN – See Katzenellenbogen, Abraham Abush ben Levi Hirsch.
ABRAHAM, ADOLPHE – French colonel; born at Thionville, France, March 21, 1814. When eighteen he enlisted as a volunteer, and was assigned to the 52d Regiment of the line, which started immediately afterward for the siege of Antwerp. He is one of...