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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.'' 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 |
Sefer Yetzirah
''Sefer Yetzirah'' ( ''Sēp̄er Yəṣīrā'', ''Book of Formation'', or ''Book of Creation'') is a work of Jewish mysticism. Early commentaries, such as the ''Kuzari'', treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory, as opposed to one about Kabbalah. The word ''Yetzirah'' is more literally translated as "Formation"; the word ''B'riah'' is used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva or Adam. Modern scholars have not reached consensus on the question of its origins. According to 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 humans the means to understand the unity and omnipotence of God, which appear multiform on the one hand, and yet, are uniform. The famous opening words of the book are as f ... [...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 run by the Alliance Israélite Universelle. In 1903, he became professor of Arabic and Syriac at the École des Hautes Études. He was associat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serpents In The Bible
Serpents () are referred to in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The Serpent (symbolism), symbol of a serpent or snake played important roles in the religious traditions and cultural life of ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan. The serpent was a symbol of evil power and Chaos (cosmogony), 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 Semitic root, 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 (monster), 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 ''tann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vilna Gaon
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman''), also known as the Vilna Gaon ( ''Der Vilner Goen''; ; or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym Gr"a ("Gaon Rabbenu Eliyahu": "Our great 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 mi-Vilna'', "the 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. Although he is chronologically one of the ''Acharonim'', some have considered him one of the ''Rishonim''. Large groups of people, including many ''yeshivas'', uphold the set of Jewish customs and rites ('' minhag''), the "''minhag ha-Gra''", named after him, and which is also considered by many to be the prevailin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tannin (monster)
Tannin ( ''tannīn''; ''tannīnā'' plural: ''tannīnē''; ', ultimately from Akkadian language, Akkadian 𒆗𒉌𒈾 ''dannina'') or Tunnanu (Ugaritic: 𐎚𐎐𐎐 ''tnn'', likely vocalized ''tunnanu'') was a sea monster in Ancient Canaanite religion, Canaanite and Jewish faith, Hebrew mythology used as a symbol of chaos (cosmogony), chaos and evil. Canaanite mythology Tannin appears in the Baal Cycle as one of the servants of Yam (god), Yam () defeated by Baal, Baʿal () or bound by his sister, Anat. He is usually depicted as snake, serpentine, possibly with a double tail. Hebrew mythology The ''tanninim'' () also appear in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis,. Book of Exodus, Exodus, Book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Book of Job, Job, Book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel, Book of Isaiah, Isaiah, and Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah. They are explicitly listed among the creatures created by Elohim, God on the Genesis creation narrative#Fifth day, fifth day of the Genesis creation narr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leviathan
Leviathan ( ; ; ) is a sea serpent demon 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, and the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. Leviathan is often an embodiment of chaos, threatening to eat the damned when their lives are over. In the end, it is annihilated. Christian theologians identified Leviathan with the demon of the deadly sin '' envy''. According to Ophite diagrams, Leviathan encapsulates the space of the material world. In Gnosis, it encompasses the world like a sphere and incorporates the souls of those who are too attached to material things, so they cannot reach the realm of God's fullness beyond, from which all good emanates. In Hobbes, who draws on Job 41:24, Leviathan becomes a metaphor for the omnipotence of the state, which maintains itself by educating all children in its favour, generation after generation. This idea of an eternal power that 'feeds' on its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Ibn Ezra
Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (, often abbreviated as ; ''Ibrāhim al-Mājid ibn Ezra''; also known as Abenezra or simply ibn Ezra, 1089 / 1092 – 27 January 1164 / 23 January 1167)''Jewish Encyclopedia''online; '' Chambers Biographical Dictionary'' gives the dates 1092/93 – 1167 was one of the most distinguished Jewish biblical commentators and philosophers of the Middle Ages. He was born in Tudela, Taifa of Zaragoza (now Navarre). Biography Abraham Ibn Ezra was born in Tudela, one of the oldest and most important Jewish communities in Navarre. At the time, the town was under the rule of the emirs of the Muslim Taifa of Zaragoza. However, when he later moved to Córdoba, he claimed it was his birthplace. Ultimately, most scholars agree that his place of birth was Tudela. From outside sources, little is known of ibn Ezra's family; however, he wrote of a marriage to a wife who produced five children. While it is believed four died early, the last-born, Isaac, became an influ ... [...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 Lists of constellations, constellations listed by the 2nd century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. The north pole of the ecliptic is in Draco. Draco is circumpolar star, circumpolar from northern latitudes, meaning that it never sets and can be seen at any time of 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 Axial precession (astronomy), precession, it will 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 serpe ... [...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 fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include planets, natural satellite, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxy, galaxies, meteoroids, asteroids, 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 Egyptian astronomy, Egyptians, Babylonian astronomy, Babylonians, Greek astronomy, Greeks, Indian astronomy, Indians, Chinese astronomy, Chinese, Maya civilization, M ... [...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), draws distinctions between different forms of mysticism which were practiced in different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbalah, which emerged in 12th-century southwestern Europe, is the most well known, but it is not the only typological form, nor was it the first form which emerged. Among the previous forms were Merkabah mysticism (c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE), and Ashkenazi Hasidim (early 13th century) around the time of the emergence of Kabbalah. Kabbalah means "received tradition", a term which was previously used in other Judaic contexts, but the Medieval Kabbalists adopted it as a term for their own doctrine in order to express the belief that they were not innovating, but were merely revealing the ancient hidden esoteric tradition of the Torah. This issue has been crystalized until today by alternative views on the origin of the Zohar, the main text of K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saadia Gaon
Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, 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 language, Hebrew linguistics, ''Halakha'', and Jewish philosophy, he was a student of the philosophical school known as "Jewish Kalam". In this capacity, his philosophical work entitled ''The Book of Beliefs and Opinions'' represents the first systematic attempt to integrate Jewish theology with components of ancient Greek philosophy. Saadia was also very active in opposition to Karaite Judaism in defense of Rabbinic Judaism. Biography Early life Saadia was born in Dilāẓ in the Faiyum in Middle Egypt in 892. He immigrated to ancient Israel (in the Abbasid province of Bilad Al-Sham) in 915 at the age of 23, where he studied in Tiberias under the scholar Abu Kathir Yaḥya al-Katib (known as Eli ben Yehuda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
