DANON, MEÏR BENJAMIN MENAHEM – Rabbinical writer, and chief rabbi of Sarajevo in Bosnia; lived in the first half of the nineteenth century. He wrote "Be'er ba-Sadeh" (A Well in the Field), a supercommentary on Rashi's commentary to the Pentateuch, and on its...
DANON, YOM-ṬOB – Author and rabbi of Smyrna in the first half of the nineteenth century. He went to Jerusalem in 1821, where he succeeded Joseph Ḥazan as chief rabbi. He wrote "Kebod Yom-Ṭob," a commentary on Maimonides' "Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah"...
DANTE, ALIGHIERI – Florentine poet; born 1265; died at Ravenna Sept. 14, 1321. Dante took an active part in the political feuds then distracting his native city, and in 1302 was banished. From that time on he lived in exile, enjoying from time to...
DANZ, JOHANN ANDREAS – German theologian and Hebraist; born at Sundhausen, near Gotha, 1654; died at Jena Dec. 22, 1727. Danz studied at Wittenberg and at Hamburg, where he learned Hebrew under Esdras Edzardi; and he became professor of Oriental...
DANZIG – Capital of West Prussia. The Jewish population of Danzig in 1895 was 2,474, in a total population of 125,605.The Five Congregations. The oldest document concerning the Jews of Danzig, a charter of King Casimir authorizing two...
DANZIG, ABRAHAM BEN JEHIEL – His Youth. Lithuanian codifier; born in Danzig in 1747 or 1748; died at Wilna Sept. 12, 1820. He was descended from a family of scholars in West Prussia, his great-grandfather, Jehiel Michael, having been rabbi in Schottland,...
DAPIERA (DE PIERA), ASTRUC – Martyr; lived in Barcelona. He was probably a relative of Isaac de Piera, who also lived in Barcelona, and who, in the year 1391, was baptized under the name of Guillermo Vidal Puiol ("Rev. Et. Juives," iv. 59). Dapiera, accused...
DAPIERA, SOLOMON BEN MESHULLAM – Neo-Hebraic poet of North Spain; died after 1417. He was a relative of Meshullam ben Solomon Dapiera, who flourished, probably in southern France, in the earlier part of the thirteenth century, and who, in several extensive...
DARDA – One of the wise men surpassed in wisdom by King Solomon (I Kings iv. 31). He is mentioned, with Ethan, Heman, and Chalcol, as a son of Mahol. In I Chron. ii. 6 he is called "Dara," the son of Zerah. Rabbinic fancy has identified...
DARDANELLES – Name of the two cities situated opposite each other on the shores of the strait at the entrance to the Sea of Marmora. The European city is inhabited byMohammedans exclusively; the Asiatic city contains Mohammedans, Greeks,...
DAR'I, MOSES – 1. Moses ben Adonim ha-Lewi: Karaite; flourished in Dar'ah toward the end of the ninth century. He was a grammarian of prominence, as is shown by the title "Medaḳdeḳ" (Grammarian) given to him. Some of his exegetic notes,...
DARIUS I – King of Persia from 521 to 485 B.C.; son of Hystaspes. The sources for the history of Darius are his own trilingual inscription at Behistun, the Babylonian contract tablets, and the accounts which the Greeks from Herodotus...
DARIUS III – Biblical Data: Last King of Persia; reigned from 336 to 330 B.C.; conquered by Alexander the Great. He is probably the "Darius the Persian," with whose reign the record of the priestly heads of families mentioned in Nehemiah...
DARKNESS – The rendering in the English versions of the Hebrew and its synonyms , . At one time darkness was regarded as something substantial, and not merely as the absence of light. This is apparent from the frequent juxtaposition of...
DARMESTETER, ARSÈNE – French philologist and brother of James Darmesteter; born at Château-Salins Jan. 5, 1846; died at Paris Nov. 16, 1888. Darmesteter, who came as a little boy to Paris, went first to a primary school, but learned much from the...
DARMESTETER, JAMES – French Orientalist; born March 28, 1849, at Château-Salins, Lorraine; died Oct. 19, 1894, at Paris. His parents were from a family established in Lorraine since the middle of the eighteenth century. When, in 1791, the Jews of...
DARMSTADT – See Hesse.
DARMSTADT, JOSEPH BEN MEÏRẒEBI – German Talmudist; flourished in the second half of the eighteenth century. He was a pupil of Mordecai Halberstadt, author of "Ma'amar Mordecai." Darmstadt wrote "'Eẓ Yosef" (Joseph's Tree), novellæ to the tractates Berakot,...
DAROCA – Town in the Spanish province of Saragossa, and formerly a part of the ancient kingdom of Aragon. It contains an old Jewish community. It had its privileges, like the neighboring community of Calatayud, and for the most part...
DARSHAN, SIMEON – See Kara, Simon.
DARSHANIM – See Homiletics.
DART – A pointed weapon to be thrown by the hand; a javelin or light spear. The English version uses "dart" as an equivalent for five Hebrew words: (1) "Ḥeẓ," which should be rendered "arrow" (compare the Assyrian "uṣṣu" and the...
DASCOLA, ASTRUC – See Kansi, Samuel.
DASHEV – Village in the government of Kiev, Russia. It has a population of 6,200, including 3,200 Jews, whose sources of income are mainly commercial and industrial. About 714 are artisans, 278 of these being masters. Tailoring occupies...
DATE-PALM – See Palm-tree.