PENNSYLVANIA – First Mention. One of the original thirteen states of the American Union; named after William Penn, who received a grant of the territory from King Charles II. in 1681. When Peter Stuyvesant, in 1655, conquered the Swedish...
PENSO, ABRAHAM – Turkish rabbinical author; lived at Sarajevo, Bosnia, at the end of the eighteenth century; pupil of David Pardo. Penso was the author of "Appe Zuṭre" (Salonica, 1798), a work on the paschal laws, and of "Tola'at Shani" (ib....
PENSO, JOSEPH – Merchant, poet, and philanthropist; born at Espejo, Spain, about 1650; died at Amsterdam Nov. 13, 1692. He was the son of Isaac Penso Felix and of Esther de la Vega, whose family name he assumed, and who was a relative of the...
PENTAPOLIS – 1. The five Sodomite cities Adamah, Gomorrah, Sodom, Zeboim, and Zoar, expressly called "Pentapolis" in Wisdom x. 6.2. The five Philistine cities Askelon, Azotus, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza (comp. I Sam. vi. 17, 18) in connection...
PENTATEUCH – The five books of Moses. The word is a Greek adaptation of the Hebrew expression "ḥamishshah ḥumshe ha-Torah" (five-fifths of the Law) applied to the books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and indicating...
PENTECOST – Name given by the Greek-speaking Jews to the festival which occurred fifty days (ἡ πεντηκόστη, sc. ἡΜέρα = "Ḥag Ḥamishshim Yom"; comp. Lev. xxiii. 16) after the offering of the barley sheaf during the Passover feast (Tobit ii....
PEOR – Mountain in the plains of Zophim, overlooking Jeshimon, where Balak took Balaam to induce him to curse Israel. According to the "Onomasticon" of Jerome, it was situated opposite Jericho, near a city named "Danaba." Although the...
PE'OT – Side-locks worn by Jewish men, especially those of Poland and Russia. Strictly conforming themselves to the Biblical precept in Lev. xix. 27, they allowed the hair to grow on both sides of the head and to hang down in curls or...
PERÆA – Division of Palestine, extending, according to Josephus ("B. J." iii. 3, § 3), from Macherus in the south to Pella in the north, and from the Jordan in the west to Philadelphia (Rabbat Ammon) in the east. But in fact it covered...
PERAḤYAH, AARON B. ḤAYYIM (ABRAHAM) HA-KOHEN – Rabbi and author; flourished at Salonica in the seventeenth century; a pupil of Ḥasdai Peraḥyah ha-Kohen. He was the author of the following four works: (1) "Paraḥ Maṭṭeh Aharon" (Amsterdam, 1703), responsa written between the...
PERAḤYAH B. NISSIM – Tosafist of the second half of the thirteenth century; the author of novellæ on certain Talmudic treatises, some of whichwere reprinted by Mas'ud Ḥai Roḳeaḥ in his "Ma'aseh Roḳeaḥ" (Venice, 1752). Peraḥyah's commentary on the...
PEREDA – Palestinian amora of the second generation; probably a pupil of R. Ammi, to whom he addressed a halakic question (Men. 53a). Once, when his pupils announced the visit of R. Ezra b. Abtolemus (Eu[p]tolemus), adding that he was a...
PEREFERKOVICH, NAHUM ABRAMOVICH – Russian author and translator; born at Stavropol, Caucasia, in 1871, receiving there his early education. In 1894 he was graduated by the faculty of Oriental languages of the University of St. Petersburg, with a gold medal for...
PEREIRA, DIEGO (MOSES) LOPEZ – See Aguilar, Diego d'.
PEREIRA, JONATHAN – English physician and medical writer; born in London May 22, 1804; died there Jan. 20, 1853. He was educated at the Aldersgate General Dispensary and at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, graduating as apothecary in 1823, and receiving...
PEREIRE – French family of which the following are the most distinguished members:(Jacob) Emile Pereire: French banker; grandson of Jacob Rodrigues Pereire; born at Bordeaux 1800; died at Paris Jan. 5, 1875. At the age of twenty-two he...
PERETZ, ABRAHAM – Russian financier; friend and contemporary of Nathan Notkin and Nevakhovich. He was a son of the rabbi of Levertov, Galicia, and son-in-law of Joshua Zeitlin of Shklov. In the reign of Paul I., Peretz, in partnership with the...
PERETZ, ISAAC LÖB – Writer in Yiddish and Hebrew; born at Samoscz, government of Lublin, May 25, 1851. In the Hebrew school in which he received his early education he so distinguished himself in his Hebrew studies that he was denominated an...
PEREYRA, ABRAHAM ISRAEL – Spanish writer and philanthropist; born at Madrid; died 1699 at Amsterdam. He went to Venice to escape the persecution of the Inquisition, and thence to Amsterdam.Pereyra was highly esteemed on account of his wealth and culture,...
PEREZ – Marano family of Cordova or Seville, several members of which were victims of the Inquisition in Spain and South America, while several others settled in Turkish territory.Aaron b. Abraham Perez: Chief rabbi at Jerba, where he...
PEREZ BEN ELIJAH OF CORBEIL – French tosafist; lived at Corbeil in the second half of the thirteenth century; died before 1298, probably in 1295; son of the Talmudist Elijah of Tours. In Talmudical literature he is designated by the abbreviations "RaP" (=...
PEREZ B. ISAAC COHEN GERONDI – Cabalist. The surname "Gerondi" is due to an unwarranted deduction by Jellinek ("Beiträge zur Gesch. der Kabbalah," ii. 64), and is used for the purpose of describing more in detail the author of "Ma'areket ha-Elahut." A certain...
PEREZ B. MENAHEM – Rabbi at Dreux; took part in his old age in the great synod held before 1160 under the presidency of Jacob b. Meïr (R. Tam). He was the father of Menahem Vardimas, author of an "'aḳedah" in forty-five verses. Perez was probably...
PERFUME – Both fragrant ointments and perfumes ("roḳaḥ" or "riḳḳuḥim") in general (comp. Incense) were known to the Israelites. There is nothing to indicate that they understood how to obtain them from animal matter, mention being made...
PERGAMENTER, SOLOMON B. SHALOM, OF BRÜNN – Austrian Hebraist and poet of the earlier part of the nineteenth century. He was the author of "Yesode ha-Lashon," in Judæo-German, for self-instruction in Hebrew (Vienna, 1813; 2d, improved, ed. ib. 1832), and of several Hebrew...