AGATE – Biblical Data: A precious stone, mentioned four times in the Authorized Version of the Bible—twice as the translation of kadkod (Isa. liv. 12, Ezek. xxvii. 16), and twice of shebo (Ex. xxviii. 19, xxxix. 12). The Agate derives...
AGDE – A town in the department of Hérault, France, two miles from the Mediterranean Sea and thirty miles from Montpellier. Probably there was a Jewish community here some time before the sixth century; for the Council of Agde, which...
AGE, OLD – Various terms are used in the Bible to designate the declining years of life. The most frequent is zaḳen (old, and old man). This term is applied first to Abraham and thereafter to other Biblical worthies, as Isaac, Jacob,...
AGEDA, ALLEGED CONFERENCE OF – In an English pamphlet, entitled "A Narrative of the Proceedings of a Great Council of Jews Assembled on the Plain of Ageda in Hungary, about ThirtyLeagues from Buda, to Examine the Scriptures Concerning Christ, on the Twelfth...
AGEN – A town in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, France, on the banks of the Garonne, southeast of Bordeaux. Some Jews settled here in the beginning of the twelfth century. The records show that the Jews of Agen were the first...
AGENCY, LAW OF – The Law of Agency deals with the status of a person (known as the agent) acting by direction of another (the principal), and thereby legally binding the principal in his connection with a third person. The person who binds a...
AGES OF MAN IN JEWISH LITERATURE, THE SEVEN – The Biblical allusions to the various stages of human life (Jer. vi. 11, li. 22; Ps. cxlviii. 12) and the metaphors in Holy Writ concerning man in all his phases are brought together in Löw's "Die Lebensalter," pp. 12-20 (see...
AGGADA, THE – See Haggadah, The.
AGGADISTS – See Haggadists.
AGGEI, THE PROUD KING – The original idea of the legend concerning the Proud King Aggei, which appears in various forms in folk-lore, is found also in the Talmud, the Midrashim, and the Targum. The Russian version, as rendered by Garshin, reads as...
AGLA – A cabalistic sign used as a talisman. It is a combination of the initial letters of "Attah Gibbor Le'olam Adonai," the first four words of the second benediction of Shemoneh 'Esreh (see Moses Botarel, commentary on "Sefer...
AGNATES – In Roman law, kindred on the paternal side only: the word is used in contradistinction to cognati, kindred on the mother's as well as on the father's side.In Jewish law, the right of inheritance, based on the written law (Num....
AGNOSTICISM – Name and Meaning. A term invented by Prof. Thomas H. Huxley in 1869, expressive of opposition to the claims of the Christian gnostic as "the one who knows all about God" (see Huxley in the "Nineteenth Century," February, 1889),...
AGOBARD – Archbishop of Lyons; born 779. died June 6, 840; one of the principal opponents of Judaism in the ninth century. In his time the Jews of Lyons inhabited a special quarter, situated at the foot of the hill of Fourvière. They...
AGRAM (ZAGREB) – Austro-Hungarian city, capital of Croatia and Slavonia, situated near the Save river, about 160 miles from Vienna. The first two Jewish families that settled at Agram migrated thither during the second half of the eighteenth...
AGRARIAN LAWS – Fixed Tenure of Land. With the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan, and the consequent transition from their former nomadic mode of life to agricultural conditions, fixed tenure of landed property became a natural...
AGRICULTURAL COLONIES IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC (ARGENTINA) – Early Difficulties. Excepting certain settlements of Jewish farmers in Brazil referred to elsewhere (pp. 265, 266), agriculture among the Jews in South America has been confined to the Argentine colonies established by the...
AGRICULTURAL COLONIES IN CANADA – Agricultural activity among Jews in Canada is a sequel to Russo-Jewish immigration occasioned by persecution. The Mansion House Committee of London, England, the Jewish Colonization Association of Paris, and a local committee in...
AGRICULTURAL COLONIES IN PALESTINE – Since the dispersion of the Jews from their native land, many efforts have been made to induce them to return to Palestine and engage in agriculture. Probably the first of these to lead to any practical result occurred in the...
AGRICULTURAL COLONIES IN RUSSIA – The idea of colonizing the Jews as agriculturists in Russia originated with the Polish historian Czacki and Nathan Nata (Notkin), who in turn inspired the poet Derzhavin, whom Emperor Paul sent to White Russia in 1799 to...
AGRICULTURAL COLONIES IN THE UNITED STATES – With the exception of the partly successful experiment by thirteen Jewish families in the state of New York in 1837 (see below), Jewish agriculture and Agricultural Colonies in America are not of earlier date than the great...
AGRICULTURE – Historical Aspects: Israel Originally Pastoral. Agriculture was the basis of the national life of the Israelites; state and Temple in Palestine were alike founded on it. At the outset the Hebrews are represented as a pastoral...
AGRIGENTUM – A town on the south coast of Sicily; was the seat of a large Jewish congregation as early as the time of Pope Gregory the Great (590-601). There is no information of the origin and age of this settlement and of its further...
AGRIPPA I – King of Judea; born about the year 10 B.C. ("Ant." xiv. 9, § 2); died suddenly in 44. His career, with its abundant and extreme vicissitudes, illustrates in a remarkable manner the complete dependence of the royal family of...
AGRIPPA II – Son of Agrippa I. He was born in the year 28, and according to a statement that is not uncontradicted (Photius, "Bibliotheca," cod. 33), it is said that he died in the year 100. He was educated in Rome, where he saw much of the...