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Ḥushiel
Chushiel ben Elchanan (also Ḥushiel) was president of the bet ha-midrash at Kairouan, Tunisia toward the end of the 10th century. He was most probably born in Italy, but his origins and travels remain obscure, and his eventual arrival in Kairwan is the subject of a well-known story. The Story of the Four Prisoners According to the ''Sefer Ha-Kabbalah'' of Abraham ibn Daud, Chushiel was one of the four scholars who were captured by Abd al-Rahman III, an Arab admiral, while voyaging from Bari to Sebaste to collect money "for the dowries of poor brides." Ḥushiel was sold as a slave in North Africa, but he and the other three rabbis were ransomed by Jewish communities in Alexandria, Cordoba, and Kairouan. On being ransomed, Ḥushiel went to Kairouan, an ancient seat of Talmudical scholarship. There his Talmudical knowledge gained for him the position of president of the bet ha-midrash—probably after the death of Jacob ben Nissim. However, an autograph letter from � ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shemariah Ben Elhanan
Shemariah ben Elhanan was head of the yeshivah of Cairo, Egypt, about the end of the 10th century. Abraham ibn Daud''Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah,'' in A. Neubauer, ''M. J. C.'' i. 68 relates that Ibn Rumais (or Ibn Demahin), an Arab admiral, had captured four scholars who were voyaging from Bari to Sebaste to collect money for the maintenance of the great school in Babylonia ("haknasat kallah"), and that one of the four was called Shemariah b. Elhanan. Shemariah was sold by his captor at Alexandria, where he was afterward ransomed by rich Jews. Shemariah then went to Cairo, where he founded a flourishing school. As to the native place of the captured scholars, the general opinion, more particularly with regard to Shemariah, is that the four were Babylonians, I.H. Weiss being the only authority who assigns them to Italy. David Kaufmann thinks they came from Pumbedita. This opinion, at least with regard to Shemariah b. Elhanan, is confirmed by a fragment of a responsum apparently addressed b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Harkavy
Abraham (Albert) Harkavy (, russian: Авраа́м Я́ковлевич Гарка́ви, translit=Avraám Yákovlevich Garkávi; 17 October 1835 – 15 March 1919) was a Russian historian and orientalist. Biography Harkavy was born in 1835 to a Lithuanian Jewish family in Navahrudak, Minsk Governorate (in present-day Belarus). He studied initially in the Volozhin yeshiva and graduated from the Teacher's Institute in Vilna. In 1863, he enrolled at the University of St Petersburg, where he studied Oriental Languages and graduated with the degree of master of history in 1868. He continued his studies in Berlin and Paris, receiving a doctorate in history in 1872. Harkavy become involved in Jewish communal life in Russia, and was extremely active in various capacities. From 1864 Harkavy was secretary of the Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews of Russia, and from 1873 he was one of the directors of the Jewish community of St. Petersburg. In 1876 he was appointed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berakhot (Talmud)
Berakhot ( he, בְּרָכוֹת, Brakhot, lit. "Blessings") is the first tractate of ''Seder Zeraim'' ("Order of Seeds") of the Mishnah and of the Talmud. The tractate discusses the rules of prayers, particularly the Shema and the Amidah, and blessings for various circumstances. Since a large part of the tractate is concerned with the many ''berakhot'' ( en, blessings), all comprising the formal liturgical element beginning with words "Blessed are you, Lord our God….", it is named for the initial word of these special form of prayer. ''Berakhot'' is the only tractate in ''Seder Zeraim'' to have Gemara – rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah – in the Babylonian Talmud. There is however Jerusalem Talmud on all the tractates in ''Seder Zeraim''. There is also a Tosefta for this tractate. The Jewish religious laws detailed in this tractate have shaped the liturgies of all the Jewish communities since the later Talmudic period and continue to be obse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rav Papa
Rav Pappa ( he, רַב פַּפָּא) (c. 300 – died 375) was a Babylonian rabbi, of the fifth generation of amoraim. Biography He was a student of Rava and Abaye. After the death of his teachers he founded a school at Naresh, a city near Sura, in which he officiated as "resh metivta," his friend and associate, Rav Huna ben Joshua, acting as "resh kallah" (356-375). Papa's father seems to have been wealthy and to have enabled his son to devote himself to study. Papa inherited some property from his father; and he also amassed great wealth by brewing beer, an occupation in which he was an expert. He likewise engaged in extensive and successful business undertakings, and his teacher Rava once said of him: "Happy is the righteous man who is as prosperous on earth as only the wicked usually are!". However, Rava also accused Papa and his friend Huna of being exploitative in business: "You would take the coats from people's backs". Rav Papa was known for his honesty in business: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews. The term ''Talmud'' normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (), although there is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud (). It may also traditionally be called (), a Hebrew abbreviation of , or the "six orders" of the Mishnah. The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (, 200 CE), a written compendium of the Oral Torah; and the Gemara (, 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. The term "Talmud" may refer to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menahem Meiri
Menachem ben Solomon Meiri or Hameiri (1249–1315) was a famous Catalan rabbi, Talmudist and Maimonidean. Biography Menachem Meiri was born in 1249 in Perpignan, which then formed part of the Principality of Catalonia. He was the student of Rabbi Reuven, the son of Chaim of Narbonne, France. ''Beit HaBechirah'' His commentary, the ''Beit HaBechirah'' (literally "The Chosen House," a play on an alternate name for the Temple in Jerusalem, implying that the Meiri's work selects specific content from the Talmud, omitting the discursive elements), is one of the most monumental works written on the Talmud. This work is less a commentary and more of a digest of all of the comments in the Talmud, arranged in a manner similar to the Talmud—presenting first the ''mishnah'' and then laying out the discussions that are raised concerning it. Haym Soloveitchik describes it as follows: :Meiri is the only medieval Talmudist (rishon) whose works can be read almost independently of the Talmudic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
