Volume 1

The Jewish encyclopedia : a descriptive record of the history, religion, literature, and customs of the Jewish people from the earliest times to the present day / prepared ... under the direction of ... Cyrus Adler [and others] Isidore Singer ... managing editor.

Date:: 1901-1906

Credit: The Jewish encyclopedia : a descriptive record of the history, religion, literature, and customs of the Jewish people from the earliest times to the present day / prepared ... under the direction of ... Cyrus Adler [and others] Isidore Singer ... managing editor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

166/752 (page 118)

$Abraham ibn Shoshan THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA 118 ha-Hayjnni ” (Bundle of Life), commentaries on the Song of Songs and the treatise Berakot; (3) “ Zeror lia-Mor” (Bundle of Myrrh), a commentary on the Pentateuch, (wntaining interpretations according to both tlie ordinary sense and the mystical method of the Zohar; (4) “Zeror ha-Kesef ” (Bundle of Silver), legai decisions (compare “ Monatsschrift,” 1853, pp. 246, 247, and the Leyden Catalogue, pp. 94, 96). A manuscript of his commentary on the Book of Job was in Jellinek’s library. Saba wrote also a commen- tary on Pirke Abot, mentioned in his commentary on Genesis, 'pp. 3 and 5. According to Azulai (“Shcm ha-Gcdolimwho read the anecdote in a work entitled “Dibre Yosef,” Abraham in journeying from Fez to Verona became sick on the ship in mid-ocean during a great storm. The cai)tain, unable to control the ship, had given up all hope, and implored Rabbi Abraham to pray for divine assistance. Abraham stipulated that in case of his death his body should be delivered to the Jewish community of Verona, and then prayed for the safety of the vessel. His prayer was heard, the storm abated, and the ship went safely on. Two days later Abraham died, and the captain, keei)ing his promise, brought the body to Verona, where it was buried with great honors. Abraham is not to be confounded with R. Abraham Saba of Adrianople, who is mentioned in the responsa of R. Elijah Miz- rahi, No. 52. Bibliography: Steinschneider, Cat. Borlt. No. 4301; Griitz, iiencli. d. Juden, 'M ed., viil. 219, 379; Michael, Or lia-Haij- lllm, No. 199. J. L. S. ABRAHAM IBN SAHL: See Abu Isit.ak, Ibrahim ibn Saul. ABRAHAM SAMUEL : Talmudist, preacher, and liturgical poet; flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century. He was a pupil of Abraham Motal, rabbi of Salouica, and later became teacher and preacher at Istib (Rumelia). He died childless about the year 1650. In order to prevent his name from falling into oblivion, Nissim ben Moses Cohen of Venice published, in 1719, a part of his manuscripts under the title, “ Shirat Dodi ” (The Song of My Friend), a versification of the halakot contained in Mishnah Shabbat. As iioetry it has no value what- soever, as might have been expected, considering the dry legal matter he had to handle. The authorship of the nin^in, printed in the “ Nagid u-Mezawweh,” p. 22 (Amsterdam, 1712), can not be ascribed to him. Inasmuch as the memorial formula is omitted after his name, the author of the tolmlwl must have lived after 1712, whereas Abra- ham Samuel died about 1650. The writer of these tokahot is called Abraham ben Samuel, and not Abraham Samuel. Bibliography: Conforte, Kore hn,-Dornt, ed. 1846, p. ,627i; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. No. 4;3()8: Michael, Or ha^Han- llirn. No. 2.54. Both Steinschneider and Michael overlooked Conforte’s note and therefore fell into errors. L. G. ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL: Physician in Bar- celona about 1030; contemporary of Abraham ben Hiyyah. He was highly esteemed at the court of Count Berenger for his knowledge of medical science. M. K. ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL BEN ALDE- MAGH : Hebrew poet of the thirteenth century, some of whose verses are found in Hebrew trans- lations of Maimonides’ Arabic commentary on the Mishnah. Bibliography : Cataloque de.^ Manwcrita Hebreux et Samar- itains de la Bibliotheque Natioiiale de Paris, p. 44. ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL COHEN OF LASK, known as “The Hasid [Pious] of Am- sterdam ” : A Jewish ascetic who flourished at the end of the eighteenth centiiiy. He went to live at Jerusalem in 1785, but afterward traveled through Europe as an agent for the collection of donations for the Polish Jews in Palestine, making Amsterdam his center; he died as hakam at Safed, Palestine, during a riot against the Jews, who had protested against excessive taxation. He was an ascetic of a re- markable type; he fasted six days of the week, from Sabbath night to Sabbath eve, but feasted quite lux- uriously on the Sabbath. Often he devoted entire days and nights to the study of the Torah, standing upright during that time. He took his daily ablu- tions in the river before offering his prayers in the morning, often breaking through the ice in winter for this purpose. Yet in spite of all this austerity he was a man of uncommon vigor. Once in Palestine, together with a number of Jew- ish scholars, Abraham was dragged to prison by some Turkish officials, and subjected to the bastinado, for no other reason than that it was the usual method pursued by the Turkish government for extorting money from the Jews. Abraham and another rabbi alone survived. At every stroke received Abraham uttered the rabbinic phrase, IT DU (“ This, too, is for the be.st”). He was held in reverence by the best men of the time as “ the holy man of God. ” He pub- lished several cabalistic homilies, one under the title of “ Weshab ha-Koheu” (The Priest Shall Return), Leg- horn, 1788; another, “ Wehishab lo ha-Kohen ” (The Priest Shall Reckon), Fiirth, 1784; athird,“Bet Ya- ‘akob” (.lacob’s House), Leghorn, 1792; and a fourth, “ ‘Ayin Pauim ba-Torah ” (Seventy Meanings of the Law), Warsaw, 1797. The last work gives seventy reasons for the order of the sections in the Penta- teuch, as well as seventy reasons why the Law be- gins, “ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ” (Gen. i. 1). All are filled with fantastic numerical and alphabetical combinations. Bibliography: Miinz, Babbi Eleaznr Sbemen Rolicah. pp. 29-:{l; Zedner, Cat. Hehr. Books Brit. Mus. s. v.; Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. ii. 223. K. ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL HASDAI. See Hasdai, Abuaiia.m ben Samuel. ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL MEYU^AS. See Meyuiias, Abraham ben Samuel. ABRAHAM SON OF SAMUEL THE PIOUS: An eminent Talmudic scholar and elegist, the brother of Judah the Pious (of the Kalonymus family); was born at Speyer about the second half of the twelfth century. He attained a very old age, for Rabbi Elie- zer ben Nathan (RABN) of Mayence, whose deatli occurred before 1170, considered him a rabbinical authority of the first order, and Isaac of Vienna, the author of “Or Zaru'a,” who flourished about 1250, knew him jiersonally. Abraham was the author of several elegies on the sufferings of the Jews during the first (109(i) and the second (1147) Crusades, as also of a few seMTwt or penitential poems. He was also active as an apologist for Judaism, as is shown in the “ Nizzahon.” Bibliography: Zunz, S. P. p. 283; Michael, Or ha-Haimim, No. 248 ; Monatsschrift, 1895, xxxix. 448; 1897, xli. 146. L. G. ABRAHAM, SAMUEL, OF SOFIA: A Turkish Talmudist who flourished in the middle of the seventeenth century. In collaboration with Michael ben Moses ha-Kohen he wrote “Moreli Zedek” (Teacher of Righteousness), which was$