OREN – A word formed by the addition of the German infinitive suffix to the Latin "ora" (="pray"). which was very familiar to every one in the Middle Ages, as it still is in Catholic countries, from its repeated use in the frequent...
ORENSTEIN, ISRAEL – Russian novelist; born at Yampol, government of Podolia, 1831. At the age of twenty-one he went to Rumania, where he published (1870) his first novel in Hebrew—" Bet Ya'aḳob o Dim'at 'Ashuḳim." He subsequently published the...
ORGAAN VAN NEDERLAND – See Periodicals.
ORGAN – According to Jewish authorities, the organ was one of the instruments of music in the Temple. In the Authorized Version rendering of Ps. cl. 4 the terms "stringed instruments" and "organs" used to translate the Hebrew "minnim"...
ORḤOT ẒADDIḲIM – Book on ethics written in Germany in the fifteenth century, entitled "Sefer ha-Middot" by the author, but called "Orḥot Ẓaddiḳim" by a later copyist. Under this title a Judæo-German translation, from which the last chapter and...
ORIA – City of southern Italy, possessing one of the oldest Jewish communities in Europe. Ahimaaz ben Paltiel in his Chronicle represents his ancestor Amittai I. as living in Oria as early as 850; Hananeel, Amittai's son, held a...
ORIENT, DER – German weekly, founded by Julius Fürst, and published in Leipsic from Jan. 4, 1840, to June, 1851. Among its collaborators were Jost, Carmoly, Chajes, Letteris, Chwolson, Slonimsky, Frankel, Graetz, Jellinek, and Luzzatto. The...
ORIGEN – Christian theologian; born in Alexandria about 185; died in Tyre about 254. Trained in the study of the Bible by his father, and in philosophy by the Neoplatonist Ammonius Saccas, he early devoted himself to the philosophical...
ORIGINAL SIN – See Sin.
ORION – One of the constellations. The Septuagint translates "Kesil" in Isa. xiii. 10 and Job xxxviii. 31 by "Orion"; the Targum renders it in these two passages and in Job ix. 9 by "Nefila" (lit. "giant"), while the Peshiṭta in Amos v....
'ORLAH – Name of a treatise in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Yerushalmi, devoted to a consideration of the law, found in Lev. xix. 23-25, which ordains that the fruit of a newly planted tree shall be regarded as "'orlah" (A. V....
ORLEANS – Chief city of the department of Loiret, France. Its Jewish community dates from the sixth century. The various councils which met at that time in the city enacted special laws against the Jews. In 533 the second Council of...
ORMUZD – See Avesta; Zoroastrianism.
ORNAMENT – The mention made in the Old Testament of numerous articles of adornment leads to the conclusion that in antiquity self-adornment occupied among both men and women the same place as it does to-day in the Orient. It is probable,...
ORNAN – See Araunah.
ORNSTEIN, ABRAHAM PHILIP – English rabbi; born in London 1836; died at Cape Town Dec. 6, 1895. He was at first a teacher in the Jews' Free School, London, and at eighteen became minister to the Portsea congregation. In 1860 he removed to Birmingham as...
ORNSTEIN, JACOB MESHULLAM – Galician rabbinical authority; died at Lemberg 1839. He was the son of the Lemberg rabbi Mordecai Zeeb Ornstein. Jacob Meshullam at the death of his father was too young to succeed him in the Lemberg rabbinate; and accordingly...
ORNSTEIN, MORDECAI ZEEB – Austrian rabbinic scholar; died at Lemberg Oct. 28, 1837; son of Jacob Meshullam Ornstein, rabbi of that city, by whom he was instructed in Talmudic and rabbinical literature. At an early age he showed remarkable capacity, and...
ORNSTEIN, ẒEBI HIRSCH – Austrian rabbi; born at Lemberg; died there March 21, 1888; son of Mordecai Zeeb Ornstein, and grandson of Jacob Meshullam Ornstein, rabbi of that city. He was educated by his grandfather and father, and while quite young...
OROBIO DE CASTRO – See Castro, Balthazar (Isaac) Orobio de.
ORPAH – A Moabitess; daughter-in-law of Naomi, and wife of Mahlon. After the death of her husband, Orpah and her sister-in-law Ruth wished to go to Judea with Naomi. She was persuaded, however, by Naomi to return to her people and to...
ORPHAN – A child bereft of one or both parents, more commonly the latter .—Biblical Data: The Authorized Version, in all cases but one, renders "yatom," the Hebrew word for "orphan," by "fatherless"; the exception being in Lam. v. 3,...
ORSHA – Town in the government of Moghilef. Orsha is mentioned in the Russian chronicles of the eleventh century. In 1579 Isaac Yakubovich, a Jew of Brest, farmed the customs duties of Orsha, Moghilef, and other places. In 1643 Nikolai...
ORSHANSKI, ILYA GRIGORYEVICH – Russian jurist and author; born at Yekaterinoslav 1846; died there Sept. 5, 1875. He was descended from a family which produced a number of distinguished rabbis and communal workers. At the age of four Orshanski entered the...
ORSHANSKI, ISAAC – Russian physician; born in Yekaterinoslav about 1851. His early education was confined to the study of the Old Testament and of the Talmud and its commentaries. His parents were poor, and as a boy he was required to help his...