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.

183/752 (page 135)

$Abstinence I his mother and two of his brothers when Judas I Aristobulus ascended the Hasmonean throne (105 B.C.). However, after a year’s suffering, the king’s , death released him. His brother, Alexander Jan- na;us, then assumed the royal dignity, and caused . the execution of another brother, who had aimed at the crown, while Absalom, who preferred the life of a subject, he covered with honors. Nothing more is known concerning Absalom’s career, except that he outlived all his brothers, and was taken prisoner by Pompey when he captured Jeru.salem in 63 b.c. Through his daughter, who married his nephew Aristobulus II., Absalom became the great-grand- father of Mariarnne, the wife of Herod the Great. Bibliography : Josephus, Ant. xiii. 11, § 1; 12, § 1; 14, § 1; idem, B. J. 1. tiS, 71,85; Gratz, Gesch. d.Juden, iii. 117,164. M. Br. ABSALOM THE ELDER : A Tanna, the dates of whose birth and death are unknown. A homi- letic interpretation of Ex. xiv. 15 is recorded in his name in the Mekilta, Beshallah, 3. There is no cer- I tainty about his name, for in a parallel passage (Ex. i K. xxi. 8) he is quoted as “Abtolis,” “Abtelos” (an I abbreviation of Abtolmus-Eutolemus). Elijah Wilna corrected his name in accordance with this in the passage of Mekilta, an emendation fully justified considering the fact that copyists were generally not familiar with Greek names. L. G. ABSALOM BEN MOSES MIZRAHI. See Mizrahi, Absalom ben Moses. ABSBAN, SOLOMON (|N3D3X): Rabbi of Aleppo about 1580; was a grandson of Jacob Berab. He was highly esteemed for his learning, prudence, sagacity, and piety by contemporary scholars, such as Moses Alsheik, Samuel Laniado, and others, with whom he corresponded. Bibliography : Conforte, Knre ha-Dorot, 391), 41b, 43a; Ghi- 1 rondi and Nepi, Toledot GedoJe Yisrael, p. 326. M. K. ABSOLUTE, THE (from the Latin absolutus= loosened, removed from other things; Greek KaO’ avr6= self-existing, by itself): A philosophic term indica- ting a being or substance free from contingency and I external determination. It is defined by the philos- I ophers in various ways. Spinoza defines it as the causa sui, the cause of itself; Kant as the Ding an sich, the thing in itself; Fichte as the ganzUch Un- ; nmschrdnktes, the completely unlimited; Schopen- i hauer as das An-nichts-Oekniipfte, the unconnected; ! Spencer as “the Unknowable.” The opposite idea ' is that of the relative, the conditional, the determined, I From Aristotle down, the notions of Deity and of The Absolute are identified with each other in phi- losophy; for Deity is universally conceived as the uncaused cause of all other existences, as the causa prima, as the first, unpreceded source of all existence (Aristotle,Metaphysics,”ii. 2,xii.7etse§'.; “Physics” viii. 5; Maimonides, “ Moreh Nebukim,” i. 69). This first cause is called in Arabic by two synonymous terms, illah and sahah, which are reproduced in the philosophic Hebrew by the terms, also synony- , mous, n^y and niD- The Absolute forms the limit ! of the conceivable, the highest point of related j thought. The pyramid of logical thinking must pause or 1 reach its summit at tlie crowning point; a regressvs , in infinitum, that is, a pushing of thought beyond ! this last reach of mental ability, is impossible. Ac- cording to Maimonides {l.c., Ixviii.) and the other Arabic-Jewish philosophers, this highest attainable goal of thought is identical with God and The Absolute. The classical representative of German philosophic romanticism, Schelliug, approaches very closely in his views to the Arabic-Jewish concep- tion of The Absolute, in which the thinking subject and the thought-object become one. L. S. ABSTINENCE : Refraining from enjo3’ment9 which are lawful in themselves. Abstinence can be considered a virtue onty when it serves the purpose of consecrating a life to a higher purpose. The saints, or adherents of religious and philosophical sj's- tems that teach the mortification of the flesh, prac- tise asceticism only witli the view of perfecting the soul for the higher state of bliss for which thej believe it to be destined (see Asceticism). Tlie Jewish religion, having for its fundamental ethical principle the law of holiness: “Ye shall be holj'; for I the Lord jmur God am holy ” (Lev. xix. 2), ac- centuates the perfectibility of the whole man, while demanding the sanctification of all that pertains to human existence. “The Lord did not create the world for desolation; he formed it for human habita- tion” (Isa. xlv. 18) is the principle emphasized bj' the rabbis (Pes. 885). In the ideal state of things nothing should be profane. “In that day there shall be [inscribed] upon the bells of the horses; Holiness unto the Lord! And the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar ” (Zech. xiv. 20, 21). This view is expressed in no uncertain terms by Rab in Yer. Kid. iv., at the end; “Man in the life to come will have to account for every enjoyment offered him that was refused without sufficient cause.” Accordingly we find asceticism, or abstinence as a principle, condemned in the Tal- mud. “ Why must the Nazarite bring a sin-offering at the end of his term? (Num. vi. 13, 14). Because he sinned against his own person by his vow of ab- staining from wine,” says Eliezer ha-Kappar (Sifra, ad loc., and Ned. 10a), drawing his conclusion from this Biblical passage; “Whosoever undergoes fasting and other penances for no special reason commits a wrong.” “Is the number of things forbidden bj' the Law not enough that thou venturest to add of thine own accord by thy inconsiderate vow? ” sa}’s R. Isaac (Yer. Ned. ix. 415). See IMaimonides, Yad ha-Hazakah, De’ot,” iii. 1, where the monastic prin- ciple of abstinence, whether in regard to marriage or to eating of meat and drinking of wine, or to anj^ other per.sonal comfort, is most emphaticallj’ con- demned as antagonistic to the spirit of Judaism. Still abstinence is frequently considered merito- rious, if not actually necessaiy, as a means of self- discipline. Simon the Just said: “I partook of a Nazarite meal only once, when I met with a hand- some youth from the South who had taken the vow. When I asked him the reason, he said: ‘I saw the Evil Spirit pursue me as I beheld my face reflected in the water, and I swore that these long curls shall be cut off and offered as a sacrifice to the Lord.’ Whereupon I kissed him upon his forehead and blessed him, saying; ‘ May there be man}'Nazarites like thee in Israel! ’ ” (Nazir, 45). In this sense absti- nence is supposed to have a positive value, as a training in self-control. Consequently the law: “Be holy 1 ” was interpreted: Exercise abstinence in order to arrive at the state of purity and holiness (‘Ab. Zarah, 205; Sifra, Kedoshim, beginning). Excessive indulgence in wine or in any form of enjoyment being harmful (Prov. xxiii. 20), man must learn self-re- straint in due time. “ Haste! ” people say to the Naz- arite. “Pass quickly around the vineyard, come not too near the grape ” (B. M. 92a) became the prover- bial warning. “ Make a fence around the Law ” (Ab. i. 1; Ab. R. N. ii.). “Abstain from everything evil and from whatsoever is' like unto it,” a rule found alike in the “Didache,” iii. 1, and in the Talmud$