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Rishonim
''Rishonim'' (; ; sing. , ''Rishon'') were the leading rabbis and ''posek, poskim'' who lived approximately during the 11th to 15th centuries, in the era before the writing of the ''Shulchan Aruch'' (, "Set Table", a common printed code of Jewish law, 1563 CE) and following the ''Geonim'' (589–1038 CE). Rabbinic scholars subsequent to the ''Shulchan Aruch'' are generally known as ''acharonim'' ("the latter ones"). The distinction between the and the is meaningful historically; in ''halakha'' (Jewish law) the distinction is less important. According to a widely held view in Orthodox Judaism, the Acharonim generally cannot dispute the rulings of rabbis of previous eras unless they find support from other rabbis in previous eras. On the other hand, this view is not formally a part of ''halakha'' itself, and according to some rabbis is a violation of the halakhic system.See Kesef Mishna (Maamrim 2:2), Kovetz Igros Chazon Ish (2:26) In ''The Principles of Jewish Law'', Orthodox ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nahmanides Painting
Moses ben Nachman ( ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ramban (; ) and by the contemporary nickname Bonastruc ça Porta (; literally "Mazel tov, Mazel Tov near the Gate", see ), was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Jews of Catalonia, Catalan rabbi, philosophy, philosopher, physician, Kabbalah, kabbalist, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible, biblical commentator. He was raised, studied, and lived for most of his life in Girona, Catalonia. He is also considered to be an important figure in the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Jerusalem following its Siege of Jerusalem (1099), destruction by the Crusaders in 1099. Name "Nachmanides" () is a Greek language, Greek-influenced formation meaning "son of Nahman". He is also commonly known by the Hebrew acronym (Ra-M-Ba-N, for ''Rabbeinu Mōšeh bēn-Nāḥmān'', "Our Rabbi Moses son of Nahman"). His Cata ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shulchan Aruch
The ''Shulhan Arukh'' ( ),, often called "the Code of Jewish Law", is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Rabbinic Judaism. It was authored in the city of Safed in what is now Israel by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later. Together with its commentaries, it is the most widely accepted compilation of halakha or Jewish law ever written. The halachic rulings in the ''Shulhan Arukh'' generally follow Sephardic law and customs, whereas Ashkenazi Jews generally follow the halachic rulings of Moses Isserles, whose glosses to the ''Shulhan Aruch'' note where the Sephardic and Ashkenazi customs differ. These glosses are widely referred to as the ''mappā'' "tablecloth" to the "Set Table". Almost all published editions of the ''Shulchan Aruch'' include this gloss, and the term has come to denote both Karo's work as well as Isserles', with Karo usually referred to as "the ''Meḥabbēr''" (, "Author") and Isserles as "the Rema" (a Hebrew acr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabbi
A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of the rabbi developed in the Pharisees, Pharisaic (167 BCE–73 CE) and Talmudic (70–640 CE) eras, when learned teachers assembled to codify Judaism's written and oral laws. The title "rabbi" was first used in the first century CE. In more recent centuries, the duties of a rabbi became increasingly influenced by the duties of the Clergy, Protestant Christian minister, hence the title "pulpit rabbis." Further, in 19th-century Germany and the United States, rabbinic activities such as sermons, pastoral counseling, and representing the community to the outside all increased in importance. Within the various Jewish denominations, there are different requirements for rabbinic ordination and differences in opinion regarding who is recognized as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabbenu Gershom
Gershom ben Judah, (c. 960–1040) best known as Rabbeinu Gershom (, "Our teacher Gershom") and also commonly known to scholars of Rabbinic Judaism by the title ''Rabbeinu Gershom Me'Or Hagolah'' ("Our teacher Gershom the light of the exile"), was a famous Talmudist and Halakhist. Less than a century after Gershom's death Rashi said of him, "all members of the Ashkenazi diaspora are students of his." As early as the 14th century, Asher ben Jehiel wrote that Rabbeinu Gershom's writings were "such permanent fixtures that they may well have been handed down on Mount Sinai." He is most famous for the synod he called around 1000 CE, in which he instituted various laws and bans, including prohibiting polygamy, requiring the consent of both parties to a divorce, modifying the rules concerning those who became apostates under compulsion, and prohibiting the opening of correspondence addressed to someone else. Biography Gershom was born in Metz in 960. After his first wife died he mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob Ben Meir
Jacob ben Meir (1100 – 9 June 1171 (4 Tammuz)), best known as Rabbeinu Tam (), was one of the most renowned Ashkenazi Jewish rabbis and leading French Tosafists, a leading ''halakhic'' authority in his generation, and a grandson of Rashi. Known as "Rabbeinu" (our teacher), he acquired the Hebrew suffix "Tam" meaning straightforward; it was originally used in the Book of Genesis to describe his biblical namesake, Jacob. Biography Jacob ben Meir was born in the French country village of Ramerupt, now in Aube in northern-central France, to Meir ben Samuel and Yokheved, daughter of Rashi. His primary teachers were his father, Samuel ben Meir, known as Rashbam, and his brother. His other brothers were Isaac, known as the Rivam, and Solomon the Grammarian. He married Miriam, the sister of Shimshon ben Yosef of Falaise, Calvados, who may have been his second wife. His reputation as a legal scholar spread far beyond France. Abraham ibn Daud of the Taifa of Córdoba, a chronicler ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Provençal Rabbi
Hachmei Provence () refers to the hekhamim, "sages" or "rabbis," of Provence, now Occitania in France, which was a great center for Rabbinical Jewish scholarship in the times of the Tosafists. The singular form is ''hakham'', a Sephardic and Hachmei Provençal term for a rabbi. In matters of halakha, as well as in their traditions and customs, the Provençal hekhamim occupy an intermediate position between the Sephardic Judaism of the neighboring Spanish scholars and the Old French (similar to the Nusach Ashkenaz) tradition represented by the Tosafists. The term "Provence" in Jewish tradition is not limited to today's administrative region of Provence but to the entirety of Occitania. This includes Narbonne (which is sometimes informally, though incorrectly, transliterated as "Narvona" as a result of the back-and-forth transliteration between Rabbinical Hebrew and Old Occitan), Lunel (which is informally transliterated ''Lunil''), and the city of Montpellier, from the Mediterr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Ben Abba Mari
Isaac ben Abba Mari ( – ) was a Provençal rabbi who hailed from Marseille. He is often simply referred to as "Ba'al ha-Ittur," after his ''Magnum opus'', ''Ittur Soferim''. Biography Isaac's father, a great rabbinical authority, who wrote commentaries on the Talmud and responsa, was his teacher. In his "Ittur" Isaac often mentions as another of his teachers his uncle, who, according to a manuscript note was a pupil of Isaac Alfasi. Isaac carried on a friendly correspondence with Rabbeinu Tam, whom he was in the habit of consulting on doubtful questions, though not as a pupil consults a teacher. Abraham ben Nathan of Lunel and Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne were related to him, while the latter's son-in-law, Raavad, frequently consulted him on scientific questions. Sefer haIttur Isaac began his literary activity at the age of seventeen, when, at his father's suggestion, he wrote "Shechitah uTerefot," rules for the slaughtering of animals and the eating of their flesh. At about the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judah Ben Samuel Of Regensburg
Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg (1150 – 22 February 1217), also called Yehuda HeHasid or Judah the Pious in Hebrew, was a leader of the Ashkenazi Hasidim a movement of Jewish mysticism in Germany (not to be confused with the 18th-century Hasidic Judaism founded by the Baal Shem Tov). Judah was born in 1150 in the small town of Speyer, now in the Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, but later settled in Regensburg, now in Bavaria, in 1195. He wrote much of '' Sefer Hasidim'' ("Book of the Pious"), as well as a work about Gematria and ''Sefer Hakavod'' (Book of Glory), the latter has been lost and is only known by quotations that other authors have made from it. His most prominent students were Elazar Rokeach, Isaac ben Moses of Vienna author of ''Or Zarua'' and perhaps also Moses ben Jacob of Coucy according to Chaim Yosef David Azulai. Biography Judah was descended from an old family of kabbalists from Northern Italy that had settled in Germany. His grandfather Kalonymus ben I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleazar Of Worms
Eleazar of Worms (אלעזר מוורמייזא - also מגרמייזא of Garmiza or Garmisa) (c. 1176–1238), or Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus, also sometimes known today as Eleazar Rokeach ("Eleazar the Perfumer" אלעזר רקח) from the title of his ''Book of the Perfumer'' (''Sefer ha rokeah'' ספר הרקח)—where the numerical value of "Perfumer" (in Hebrew) is equal to Eleazar, was a prominent Kabbalist and halakhic authority, among the greatest of the '' Hasidei Ashkenaz'' and a disciple of Rabbi Judah the Pious. He was the author of the ''Sefer ha-Rokeach'' (Rokeach in gematria = Eleazar), one of the Tosafists, and wrote many Kabbalistic works, most of which survive only in manuscript form. He served as a rabbi and judge in Worms, and instituted customs still observed in Ashkenazic communities today. He was called "the Rokeach" after his book, though he was often mistakenly referred to as "Rabbi Eliezer of Germiza". Due to this confusion, he was sometim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Of Chernigov
Isaac of Chernigov was a Jewish scholar in the Kievan Rus' of the twelfth century, frequently consulted by his contemporaries on questions of Biblical exegesis. He is probably identical with Isaac of Russia, found in the English records of 1181. His explanation of the term ''yabam'', for which he finds a parallel in the Old East Slavic language, is quoted by Moses ben Isaac ha-Nessiah of London in his lexicon ''Sefer ha-Shoham''. Leopold Zunz, and after him Abraham Harkavy, see in this explanation evidence that the Jews living in Rus' in the time of Isaac of Chernigov spoke the vernacular of the country. Bibliography * Zunz Zunz (, ) is a Yiddish surname: * (1874–1939), Belgian pharmacologist * Sir Gerhard Jack Zunz (1923–2018), British civil engineer * Leopold Zunz (Yom Tov Lipmann Tzuntz) (1794–1886), German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of academi ..., ''Ritus,'' p. 73; * Harkavy, ''Ha-Yehudim u-Sefat ha-Selavim,'' pp. 14, 62; * Neubauer, in ''Allg. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baruch Ben Samuel
Baruch ben Samuel (died April 25, 1221), also called Baruch of Mainz to distinguish him from Baruch ben Isaac, was a Talmudist and prolific '' payyeṭan'', who flourished in Mainz at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Writings He was a pupil of Moses ben Solomon ha-Kohen of Mainz, Eliezer ben Samuel of Metz and Judah ben Kalonymus; the judicial sentences of all he frequently cites. Baruch was one of the most eminent German rabbis of his time, and one of the leading signatories of the Takkanot Shum. Several of his responsa have been preserved in the German collections; most of them refer to the rabbinic civil law. His ''Sefer ha-Ḥokmah'' (''Book of Wisdom''), still extant in the time of Bezalel ben Abraham Ashkenazi, but now lost, appears also to have been largely legal in character. Early writers cite also a commentary by Baruch on the treatise '' Nedarim'', which was lost at an early date. Of Baruch's poetical activity more is known. His penitential poems and dirge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simeon Kara
Simeon ben Helbo Kara was a French rabbi who lived in Mans in the 11th century; brother of Menahem ben Helbo and father of Joseph Ḳara. Isaac de Lattes, in his ''Ḳiryat Sefer,'' counts Ḳara among the prominent French rabbis, although no work of his has survived. J.L. Rapoport identified him with the compiler of the Yalḳuṭ Shim'oni, on account of the similarity of some Midrashic quotations in this work with citations in Rashi's Bible commentary. Abraham Epstein has, however, shown that in the manuscripts the name "Ḳara" does not occur, and in place of "Simeon" the reading "Simson" at times is found. The surname ''Ḳara'' is usually taken to be a professional name, meaning 'reader' or 'interpreter of the Bible'. Adolf Jellinek the Austrian rabbi and historian points out, however, that ''Ḳara'', as contrasted with '' Derash'', means the 'representative of the '' Peshaṭ''. References Sources * * ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' bibliography * Zunz, Leopold, ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
