“Maimonides ”

Albany, New York

ALBANY, capital of the state of New York, 150 miles north of New York City; population, 95,000 (2004); estimated Jewish population, 12,000–13,000 with half living in suburbs but members of Albany congregations. Public records indicate the presence of Jews as early as 1658. Asser Levy owned property, obtained burgher's rights, and lived in Albany in the 1650s... read article

Ransoming of Captives

CAPTIVES, RANSOMING OF (Heb. פִּדְיוֹן שְׁבוּיִים; Pidyon Shevuyim): The religious duty to ransom a fellow Jew captured by slave dealers or robbers, or imprisoned unjustly by the authorities to be released against ransom paid by the Jewish community. The fulfillment of this mitzvah was regarded by the rabbis of the Talmud as of paramount importance (BB 8a, 8b). It is told of R. Phinehas b... read article

Aden

ADEN, port and city in S.W. Arabia, now part of the Federation of South Arabia, possibly identical with the Eden referred to in Ezekiel 27:23. Aden had a medieval Jewish community of great importance for the history of Jewish letters. It reached its peak during the 12th century. About 150 letters and documents written in, sent to, or concerning Aden were found in the Cairo Genizah. In addition, Yemenite Jews of that period communicated with other Jewish communities via Aden. By the end of the 11th century there was a "representative of the merchants" in Aden, Abu Ali Hasan (Heb. Japheth) ibn Bundar (probably a name of Persian origin)... read article

Transplants

Advances in medical knowledge and technology have made possible the transplantation of organs from a deceased (or, in the case of some organs such as a kidney, from a living) person into another individual stricken with disease, and this technological advance reached an acme with the transplantation of a human heart. Such operations raised many moral, theological, legal, social, and philosophical problems.With regard to the general permissibility, Rabbi I... read article

The Work of Maimonides: Maimonidean Treasures

Maimonides was only sixteen years old when he completed his first work, a technical treatise on logic of which the Library has the first edition, Millot ha-Higgayon (Terms of Logic), Venice, 1550. Written in Arabic, it was translated into Hebrew by Moses ibn Tibbon, who gave it its Hebrew name. Its theme and structure presage Maimonides's later works... read article

Jewish Concepts: Repentance

I remember once seeing a cartoon that showed a father examining his young son's report card, which was filled with Ds and Fs. As the father scowled, the boy asked: "What do you think it is, Dad, heredity or environment?" Over and above heredity and environment, Judaism insists on a third factor that influences human behavior: the soul... read article

Algiers, Algeria

ALGIERS (Al-Jazair), capital of *Algeria. The small Jewish community in the late Middle Ages was enlarged after 1248 by Jews from the Languedoc and about 1287 by Jews from Majorca. The population of Majorcan Jews increased between 1296 and 1313, when the town enjoyed a short-lived independence. The Majorcan Jews were arms suppliers. Before 1325 the port was visited regularly by Catalans and Genoese, as well as by Jewish shipowners and merchants... read article

Christian Crusades Timeline (1095-1258)

Return to Timeline of Jewish History: Table of Contents 1096 Participants in the First Crusade massacre Jews in several Central European cities, beginning centuries of pogroms linked to the Crusades. 1096 More than 5,000 Jews were murdered in Germany in several different attacks... read article

Legal Maxims

LEGAL MAXIMS, concise statements of the law as it is or, often, succinct statements embodying a guiding principle established in law. The word kelal, in one of its varied meanings, is the Hebrew equivalent of a legal maxim. "The burden of proof is on the plaintiff " (BK 3:11), for example, is referred to as "a great maxim of jurisprudence" (kelal gadol ba-din; BK 46a; see also *Evidence).Historical PeriodsThe wealth of Jewish legal maxims is essentially talmudic. The great corpus of tannaitic and amoraic literature contains hundreds of maxims, i.e., legal rules and principles of jurisprudence stated in brief form and summary fashion... read article

Israel Environment & Nature: National Parks & Nature Reserves

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Day and Night

The profound psychological effect made on man by the regular change from day to night is a theme in the aggadah, epitomized in Adam's fear upon watching the first sunset (Av. Zar. 8a). In the Scriptures and in the aggadah, night has negative associations. It is a time of fear and danger, a symbol of death and of the return to chaos (cf. Ps. 91:5–6; Song 3:8). Day has positive connotations. The converse view, however, is also expressed. The day comprehends dangers of its own ("the destruction that wasteth at noonday," Ps... read article

Mixed Species

MIXED SPECIES (Heb. כִּלְאַיִם; kilayim), prohibition mentioned twice in the Bible. Leviticus 19:19 states: "Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind; thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seed; neither shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together." Deuteronomy 22:9–11 states: "Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with two kinds of seed; lest the fulness of the seed which thou hast sown be forfeited together with the increase of the vineyard. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together... read article

Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA, fifth largest city in the United States, in the State of *Pennsylvania. The area's Jewish population (2001), sixth largest in the nation, was estimated at 206,000.Origins of the Jewish CommunityJews came from New Amsterdam to trade in the Delaware Valley area as early as the 1650s, long before William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682. Several individual Jews were transient in Philadelphia by 1706... read article

Abraham Joshua Heschel

HESCHEL, ABRAHAM JOSHUA (1907–1972), U.S. scholar and philosopher, descended on his father's side from *Dov Baer (the Maggid) of Mezeritch and *Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apta (Opatow); on his mother's side from *Levi Isaac of Berdichev. After traditional Jewish studies, he obtained rabbinic ordination (semikhah). At the age of 20 he enrolled in the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate, and at the Hochschule fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums, where he also taught Talmud and received a second, liberal rabbinical ordination... read article

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Biography of Jewish American rabbi, scholar, and philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel... read article

Brussels, Belgium

The history of the Jewish community in Brussels, Belgium... read article

Christian-Jewish Relations: Burning of the Talmud

The campaign by the Church to proscribe Jewish literature was not launched until the 13th century when one of the consequences was the burning of the Talmud... read article

The Unexpected History Behind Jerusalem’s Street Names

A history of street names in Jerusalem... read article

Monotheism

MONOTHEISM, in its literal meaning, oneness of the godhead (i.e., one God). The concept of monotheism is embedded in the domain of religious discourse, and its full and relevant significance must be derived from the connotation which it carries within this domain. Monotheism is usually attributed to biblical faith as its unique and distinct contribution to the history of religious thought. The significance of the word monotheism in its biblical context is taken to lie in the "mono," in the godhead's being one. As such, it is contrasted with paganism, the fundamental religious alternative to biblical faith, whose distinctive religious concept is taken to be polytheism, i... read article

Extraordinary Remedies

Extrajudicial RemediesAs in other ancient civilizations, the earliest method of vindicating violated rights under biblical law was self-redress. A burglar at night may be killed on the spot (Ex. 22:1), life may be taken for life (see *Blood-Avenger) and limb for limb (see *Talion). Even when another man's rights were violated, one was exhorted not to stand idly by, but to interfere actively to vindicate them (Lev. 19:16; and cf. Ex. 23:4–5; Deut. 22:1–4)... read article