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.

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$Aaron’s Rod Aaron the Bookseller THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA 6 the sanctuary were similarly sealed, to prevent any one from having access to the rods at night. This legend of the rod as given by the Syrian Solomon in his “ Book of the Bee ” ( Anecdota Ox- Christian oniensia, Semitic Series,” vol. i. part Modifi- ii.) has Christian characteristics. Ac- cations. cording to it the stall is a fragment of the Tree of Knowledge, and was succes- sively in the possession of Shem, of the three Patri- archs, and of Judah, just as in the Jewish legend. From Judah it descended to Pharez, ancestorof David and of the Messiah. After Pharez’s death an angel carried it to the mountains of ]\Ioah and buried it there, where the pious Jethro found it. When Moses, at Jethro’s recpiest, went in search of it, the rod was brought to him by an angel. With this staff Aaron and Moses performed all the miracles related in Scrip- ture, noteworthy among which was the swallowing up of the wonder-working rods of the Egyptian Posdi. Joshua received it from Moses and made use of it in his wars (Josh. viii. 18); and Joshua, in turn, delivered it to Phinehas, who buried it in Jerusalem. There it remained hidden until the birth of Jesus, when the place of its concealment was re- vealed to Joseph, wlio took it with him on the jour- ney to Egy])t. Judas Iscariot stole it from James, brother of Jesus, who had received it from Joseph. At Jesus’ crucitixiou the Jews had no wood for the transverse beam of the cross, so Judas i)roduced the staff for that purpo.se (“Book of the Bee,” Syr. ed., pp. 50-53; Eng. ed., pp. 50-52). This typo- logical explanation of Moses’ rod as the cross is not a novel one. Origen on Exodus (chap, vii.) says; “This rod of Moses, with which he subdued the Egyptians, is the symbol of the cross of Jesus, who con(|uered the world.” Christian legend has pre- served the Jewish accounts of the rod of the Mes- siah and made concrete fact of the idea. Other Western legends concerning the connection of the cross and the rod may be found in Seymour, “ The Cross,” 1898, p. 83. The rod is likewise glorified in Mohammedan legend, which, as is usuall,y the case with the Bib- lical accounts of the Mohammedans, is plainly de- rived from Jewish sources. The following passage will serve as an illustration; “ Moses flung his staff upon the ground, and instantly it was changed into a serpent as huge as the largest camel. It glared at Pharaoh with flre-darting eyes, and lifted his throne to the ceiling. Opening its jaws, it cried aloud, ^ If it pleased Allah, I could not only swallow up the throne with thee and all that are here present, hut even thy palace and all that it con- tains, without any one perceiving the slightest change in me ’ ” (Ci. Weil, “ Biblisfhe Legenden der Muselmanner,” p. 140, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 184.5). L. G. AARON’S TOMB : The burial-place of Aaron, which, according to Num. xx. 23-28, was Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom. A later tradition, evidently of Mohammedan origin, refers to this hill as the one near Petra, called the Hill of Aaron. On its summit Aaron’s tomb is still pointed out. This identification, however, does not agree with the itinerary of the Hebrews from Kadesh, as given in Num. xxxiii. 37, 38. G. B. L. AARON: An amora mentioned twice in the Babylonian Talmud (B. K. 1095, Men. 745). In both places he is represented as furnishing Rabina, head of the rabbinical academy at Sura from 488 to 499 and one of the editors of the Babylonian Talmud, with information concerning the Baraitot (tannaitic traditions not embodied in the Mishnah) of which the latter was ignorant. L. G. AARON ABATOB. See Abiob, Aakon. AARON ABBA HA-LEVI BEN JOHAN AN; A prominent rabbi; born about the close of the six- teenth century; died in Lemberg, June 18, 1643. He was president of a rabbinical college in Lem- berg. His decisions are found in the responsa of Abraham Rapoport, Joel Sfirkes, and Meir Lublin; the last-named especially speaks very highlj’^ of him. While he hardly presents an individual type, it may he stated that in one case he condemns rigorism in the Law. Bibliogr.vphy: Buber, Anahe Shem, p. 31, Cracow, 1895. D. AARON ABRAHAM BEN BARUCH SIM- EON HA-LEVI: A calialist, born in the first quarter of the sixteenth centuiy. He published a small cabalistic work, “ Iggeret ha-Te‘amini” (Letter on the Accents), about the middle of the century, in which each accent and its specific name are ex- plained as containing references to hoth the Ten iSefirot and the people of Israel. Upon this work Shabbethai Sheftel ben Akiba Hurwitz, cabalist and physician at Prague, wrote in 1612 a volumi- nous commentary, “Sliefa' 'Tal,” asserting in the introduction (p. 13) that R. Aaron was one of the greatest masters of the Cabala, and that his work contained the most profound secrets which he (Hur- witz) wished to di.sclose. But in reality it contains only cabalistic trifles which attempt to show that the solution of the m}Stery of the Ten Sefirot is in- dicated in the names of the accents (te'mnim). Aaron Abraham b. Baruch is not identical with Aaron of Gardena. Bibliography : Steinschneider, Cat. BoiJl, Nos. 4344, G865; Neu- hauer. Cat. Bodl. IJehr. MSS. Nos. 1816, 1995; Michael, Or ha-Hatjiiim, No. 368. L. G. AARON BEN ABRAHAM IBN i^AYYIM. See Ibn Hayyim, Aaron ben Abraham. AARON BEN ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL SCHLETTSTADT. See Sciilettstadt, Aaron, ben Abraham ben Samuel. AARON BEN ABRAHAM BEN VIDAL ZARFATI. See Zarfati. Aaron ben Abraham BEN Yidal. AARON ALFANDARI. See Alfandari, Aaron. AARON BEN ASHER OF KARLIN (Rabbi Aaron II. of Karlin): One of the most famous rabbis of the Hasidim in northwestern Rmssia; born in 1802; died June 23, 1872. He had an immense number of followers, and many thousands of them used to visit him annually, about the time of the Jewish New Year, as is the custom among that sect. Notwithstanding his severity of manner and the not infrequent rudeness of his behavior, he was highly esteemed by his adherents. He “ reigned ” in Kar- lin, near Pinsk, in t he government of Minsk, in suc- cession to his father and his grandfather, Aaron hen Jacob; but a few years before his death he had a (luarrel with a rich family of Karlin and removed from there to Stolin, a town several miles di.stant. Considering the amount of business that the yearly influx of .strangers brought to the city vvhere he n - sided, his removal was regarded as a misfortune for Karlin. He died, aged seventy years and seventeen days, in Malinovka, near Dubno, in Volhynia, while on a journe_y to the wedding of his granddaughter, and was .succeeded by his son, Asher of Stolin, whose chief claim to distinction is that he spent most of his time at the mikmali (bath). Asher dieil in Drohobycz about one year after the death of his father, and was succeeded by his five-year-old son, the so-called Yenuka (Baby) of Stolin, against whose$