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Theli (dragon)
Theli (, ''Təlī''; also translated as Tali, Thele, T'li, etc.), according to the ''Sefer Yetzirah'', the earliest extant work of Jewish mysticism, is a celestial being who surrounds the universe. Theli is briefly mentioned in two versesSefer Yetzirah 6:1-2 of the ''Sefer Yetzirah'', where he is described as "above the universe, as a king on his throne". However, his overall purpose is never elaborated upon, and the ''Sefer Yetzirah'' itself does not attribute a particular form to Theli. Despite this, in the few sources which mention him, Theli is generally envisioned as a dragon. |
Sefer Yetzirah
''Sefer Yetzirah'' ( ''Sēp̄er Yəṣīrā'', ''Book of Formation'', or ''Book of Creation'') is the title of a book on Jewish mysticism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah. ''Yetzirah'' is more literally translated as "Formation"; the word ''Briah'' is used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva. Modern scholars have not reached consensus on the question of its origins. According to Rabbi Saadia Gaon, the objective of the book's author was to convey in writing how the things of our universe came into existence. Conversely, Judah Halevi asserts that the main objective of the book, with its various examples, is to give to man the means by which he is able to understand the unity and omnipotence of God, which are multiform on one side and, yet, uniform on the other. The famous opening words of the book are as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mayer Lambert
Mayer Lambert (December 23, 1863 – October 30, 1930) was a French Jewish Oriental scholar and Hebraist. Life Lambert was born on December 23, 1863, in Metz, France, the son of the religious textbook author Elie Lambert. His grandfather was Chief Rabbi Lion Mayer Lambert of Metz, his great-grandfather was Chief Rabbi Aaron of Worms, and through the latter he was a descendant of Gershon Ulif Ashkenazi and the sixteenth-century Worms rabbi and hazzan Elijah Blin. Lambert initially studied in Metz. He then went to the rabbinical seminary in Paris, receiving his rabbinical degree from there in 1886. He later studied at the Sorbonne. In 1887, he became professor of Arabic and Syriac at the seminary. In 1894, he also joined the seminary's faculty of Hebrew. During that time, he also taught Hebrew at the École Normale Orientale, which was ran by the Alliance Israélite Universelle. In 1903, he became professor of Arabic and Syriac at the École des Hautes Études. He was associated w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serpents In The Bible
Serpents ( he, נָחָשׁ, translit=''nāḥāš'') are referred to in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The symbol of a serpent or snake played important roles in the religious traditions and cultural life of ancient Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan. The serpent was a symbol of evil power and chaos from the underworld as well as a symbol of fertility, life, healing, and rebirth. ''Nāḥāš'' (), Hebrew for "snake", is also associated with divination, including the verb form meaning "to practice divination or fortune-telling". ''Nāḥāš'' occurs in the Torah to identify the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, it is also used in conjunction with '' seraph'' to describe vicious serpents in the wilderness. The ''tannin'', a dragon monster, also occurs throughout the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Exodus, the staves of Moses and Aaron are turned into serpents, a ''nāḥāš'' for Moses, a ''tannin'' for Aaron. In the New Testament ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vilna Gaon
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( he , ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman'') known as the Vilna Gaon ( Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון ''Der Vilner Gaon'', pl, Gaon z Wilna, lt, Vilniaus Gaonas) or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym HaGra ("HaGaon Rabbenu Eliyahu": "The sage, our teacher, Elijah"; Sialiec, April 23, 1720Vilnius October 9, 1797), was a Lithuanian Jewish Talmudist, halakhist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of misnagdic (non- hasidic) Jewry of the past few centuries. He is commonly referred to in Hebrew as ''ha-Gaon he-Chasid mi-Vilna'', "the pious genius from Vilnius". Through his annotations and emendations of Talmudic and other texts, he became one of the most familiar and influential figures in rabbinic study since the Middle Ages. He is considered as one of the '' Acharonim'', and by some as one of the '' Rishonim''. Large groups of people, including many ''yeshivas'', uphold the set of Jewish customs and rit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tannin (monster)
Tannin ( he, תַּנִּין ''tannīn''; syr, ܬܢܝܢܐ ''tannīnā'' plural: ''tannīnē''; ar, التنين ', ultimately from Akkadian 𒆗𒉌𒈾 ''dannina'') or Tunnanu (Ugaritic: 𐎚𐎐𐎐 ''tnn'', likely vocalized ''tunnanu'') was a sea monster in Canaanite and Hebrew mythology used as a symbol of chaos and evil. Canaanite mythology Tannin appears in the Baal Cycle as one of the servants of Yam () defeated by Baʿal () or bound by his sister, Anat. He is usually depicted as serpentine, possibly with a double tail. Hebrew mythology The ''tanninim'' () also appear in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis,. Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Job, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. They are explicitly listed among the creatures created by God on the fifth day of the Genesis creation narrative, translated in the King James Version as "great whales". The tannin is listed in the apocalypse of Isaiah as among the sea beasts to be slain by Yahweh "on that day", translated in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leviathan
Leviathan (; he, לִוְיָתָן, ) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to some translations, in the Book of Jonah; it is also mentioned in the Book of Enoch. The Leviathan is often an embodiment of chaos and threatening to eat the damned after their life. In the end, it is annihilated. Christian theologians identified Leviathan with the demon of the deadly sin envy. According to Ophite diagrams, the Leviathan encapsulates the space of the material world. The Leviathan of the Book of Job is a reflection of the older Canaanite '' Lotan'', a primeval monster defeated by the god Baal Hadad. Parallels to the role of Mesopotamian Tiamat defeated by Marduk have long been drawn in comparative mythology, as have been wider comparisons to dragon and world serpent narratives such as Indra slaying Vrtra or Thor slayi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draco (constellation)
Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. The north pole of the ecliptic is in Draco. Draco is circumpolar from northern latitudes. There it is never setting and therefore can be seen all year. Features Stars Thuban (α Draconis) was the northern pole star from 3942 BC, when it moved farther north than Theta Boötis, until 1793 BC. The Egyptian Pyramids were designed to have one side facing north, with an entrance passage geometrically aligned so that Thuban would be visible at night. Due to the effects of precession, it would again be the pole star around the year AD 21000. It is a blue-white giant star of magnitude 3.7, 309 light-years from Earth. The traditional name of Alpha Draconis, Thuban, means "head of the serpent". There are three stars under magnitude 3 in Draco. The brighter of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isidor Kalisch
Isidor Kalisch (15 November 1816 – 11 May 1886) was an American reform rabbi and writer. Early life He was born at Krotoschin in Prussia (now Poland), and was educated at Berlin, Breslau (Wrocław) and Prague. While pursuing his studies in theology and philosophy, he contributed to German periodicals. In 1842 he wrote a patriotic poem, entitled “Schlacht-Gesang der Deutschen” (Battle song of the Germans) which was set to music and became one of the popular songs of the day. In 1843, he preached the first German sermon ever delivered in his native town. Rabbi in the United States In 1848, he came to London, but passed on in 1849 to the United States. In 1850, was called to thTifereth Israelcongregation in Cleveland, Ohio, where he labored in the interest of Reform Judaism. In 1855, the first conference of rabbis was held in Cleveland, and a ritual and common prayer-book was agreed upon, entitled ''Minhag America'', which he edited together with Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest include planets, natural satellite, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxy, galaxies, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Babylonian astronomy, Babylonians, Greek astronomy, Greeks, Indian astronomy, Indians, Egyptian astronomy, Egyptians, Chinese astronomy, Chinese, Maya civilization, Maya, and many anc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewish Mysticism
Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's '' Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), distinguishes between different forms of mysticism across different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbalah, which emerged in 12th-century Europe, is the most well known, but not the only typologic form, or the earliest to emerge. Among previous forms were Merkabah mysticism (c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE), and Ashkenazi Hasidim (early 13th century) around the time of Kabbalistic emergence. Kabbalah means "received tradition", a term previously used in other Judaic contexts, but which the Medieval Kabbalists adopted for their own doctrine to express the belief that they were not innovating, but merely revealing the ancient hidden esoteric tradition of the Torah. This issue is crystallised until today by alternative views on the origin of the Zohar, the main text of Kabbalah which was written by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who opened up the study of Jewish Mystic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saadia Gaon
Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon ( ar, سعيد بن يوسف الفيومي ''Saʻīd bin Yūsuf al-Fayyūmi''; he, סַעֲדְיָה בֶּן יוֹסֵף אַלְפַיּוּמִי גָּאוֹן ''Saʿăḏyāh ben Yōsēf al-Fayyūmī Gāʾōn''; alternative English names: Rabbeinu Sa'adiah Gaon ("our Rabbi heSaadia Gaon"), often abbreviated RSG (RaSaG); Saadia b. Joseph; Saadia ben Joseph; Saadia ben Joseph of Faym; or Saadia ben Joseph Al-Fayyumi; 882/892 – 942) was a prominent rabbi, gaon, Jewish philosopher, and exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic. Known for his works on Hebrew linguistics, Halakha, and Jewish philosophy, he was a practitioner of the philosophical school known as the " Jewish Kalam". In this capacity, his philosophical work '' The Book of Beliefs and Opinions'' represents the first systematic attempt to integrate Jewish theology with components of ancient Gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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